Just Like You
by ShaydesofDarkness
Summary: Shen survived the fight, and is found by an albino fox, Meili. Shen wants revenge, but will being with Meili finally turn him from his dark past?
1. Recovering

He could feel wind blowing as he slowly was regaining consensus.

"…ughhh." he moaned. He thought that being dead would be a little less painful. But considering what he did in his life, he guessed he deserved it.

Lord Shen slowly opened his eyes. He saw that he was laying on the shores of the river, so he guessed he wasn't dead. He tried to get up, but found that he was unable to.

The last thing he remembered was the canon falling onto him, and closing his eyes as it fell, than suddenly feeling bursts of pain all throughout his body, mainly around his right wing. He also remembered the panda's last words to him, "The only thing that matters, is who you choose to be now," and telling him that he should forget his past, and to move on. But Shen didn't want to. How could he? How could he throw away everything he's ever worked for? And for what? Peace?

"Hey," a voice called out. Shen tried to tilt his head to see who was calling out to him, but a sudden burst of pain in his head kept him from doing it.

"Are you OK?" the voice called out again.

Shen tried getting up again, but felt even more pain than before.

"Aughh" Shen cried out as he felt a sudden burst of pain in his head that was worse than before.

As he closed his eyes, about to fall faint, he heard the voice say something again as he heard it stepping up to him.

"Oh no, your really hurt, don't worry, I'll help you."

Than, he fell into darkness.

When Shen awoke again, he was somewhere different. He'd manage to sit up this time, apparently the pain wasn't as worse as before. His red eyes scanned the entire room. He was in a small, brightly lit room. Sun shone in from the windows. The only thing he wanted to know was how he got there, he could remember hearing a voi-.

"Hey, your awake, I'm glad to see that." Shen was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the voice speak, and turned to the doorway where he saw a young white fox looking over at him.

"I thought you'd never wake up, than again, you were pretty beat up when I found you, I was surprised I even found you alive. Speaking of which, you should be lucky you even alive." The young vixen approached him.

Shen gazed upon her for a second. "Wh-Where am I?" he asked her.

"Your in my house. I brought you here after I found you knocked out near the river. My name is Meili by the way."

Meili came up to him, and removed the blanket that was covering him.

"What are you doing?" Shen suddenly yelled out at her.

Meili flinched a bit, but didn't get away. "Easy, geez, I'm just checking on your wounds."

Shen looked at her a bit perplexed, until she removed his robe, and he saw the red marks on his wings, and some on his thighs. His wings looked like they'd been cut, probably from the blades that he had in his robe. Meili picked up a wet wash rag, and gave it to Shen.

"Here, put it on your wing, it'll help heal it."

Shen took the rag from her. He, at first, resisted to put it on his wing, he never liked pain, and he didn't know how fresh the wounds were, but judging from the way they looked, he thought they might only be a few days old.

"Hey, are you going to put it on your wing, or am I going to have to do it for you?" Shen was once again pulled away from his thoughts by her.

Shen glared over at her, bitterly. "I don't need your help, I'm perfectly capable of doing this myself!"

Meili backed away at this. "Ok, fine, whatever, you just seemed hesitant."

Shen glared at the fox again, but she didn't seem too scared of him, in fact, she seemed kind of intrigued by him. Shen looked back at his arm, and slowly put the washcloth onto his wing, and as he did, it felt like a hundred knives stabbing him there.

"AHHH," he screamed as dropped the cloth onto the floor. Meili rushed back to his side.

"Oh no, that hurt didn't it?" she said as she tried to get a look at his wing, but Shen pushed her back.

"What do you think?" Shen bitterly yelled out again to her. The pain in his wing started to go away. He looked at it, and put his other wing on it.

Meili stepped back again. "Sorry, just trying to help as all."

Shen looked at her again. "Well, I don't need your help," he tried to say as calmly as he could.

Meili just looked at his wing. It was somewhat throbbing. "Well, it's obvious that you do."

Shen looked at his wing, than back at her. He never liked others helping him, it made him feel week, like he couldn't do things for himself. But than again, as he thought it over, she did save his life, and is somewhat trying to help, even though he didn't want it.

"Hey, are you going to do that all the time?" Meili pulled Shen back out of his thoughts again.

Shen looked at her again, than sighed. "Fine, just do what you have to do."

Meili seemed kind of surprised by his response, but found this as her window to get his wing fixed up. She got the cloth back, and Shen gave her his wing as she slowly started to work on it, it hurt, but Shen managed to ignore the pain.

Shen than looked at the fox again. He saw many foxes around China, but none that had the same colorization as her, her fur was pure white, kind of like his feathers. But what really amazed him was her eyes, they were a bright, stunning red, like his. Shen never saw another animal that had the same disfigurement like he did.

Meili looked up at him. "Are you going to stare at me all day?" She asked him.

Shen pulled his gaze away from Meili, and back to his wing, which she was now wrapping in gauze.

"You sure know a lot about medical treatment for someone your age." He said to her.

"Yeah, well, I have to teach myself a lot of things, when your living on your own, you kind of have to know these things." Meili said, somewhat solemnly to him.

Shen seemed somewhat surprise by this. "Your living by yourself? What happened to your parents?"

Meili suddenly looked up, and gasped quietly. "They're…not around…anymore."

Shen noticed she said that quite strangely, as if she was trying her best to avoid the question.

Meili tied the gauze tightly around his wing. "There, that should stop the swelling, until your wings get better you should rest."

Shen watched as she slowly left the room.

"Let me know if you need anything,"

Shen than suddenly remembered, "Oh, Meili, could you tell me how far away we are from Gongmen City?"

Meili looked at him, kind of like he was crazy. "Gongmen City? We're pretty much a two days journey from there."

Shen was surprised, he didn't know how far the river had taken him.

"Oh, what's your name by the way?" Meili asked.

"Shen, Lord Shen," He replied. Meili's expression didn't change when he said his name to her, which meant that she didn't know who he is.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Shen," she said to him before she walked out of the room.

Once she left, Shen began to mull around in his thoughts a bit. Now that he's still alive, he began to plot his revenge against the Dragon Warrior, and his friends, and will restart his plan to conquer China. But the problem was, where to begin, he basically lost everything: his wolf minions, his canons, his home, although that one was by trying to kill the Dragon Warrior. He honestly didn't know how to start over.

He laid back down, and closed his eyes. One thing was obvious to him, he wanted revenge, and will do anything he can to get to it.


	2. What to Do?

Shen awoke the next morning with the sounds of fighting outside. He got up, and made his way to the window, where he looked outside to see Meili training by herself. Shen watched in somewhat of amazement as she was using a very unusual style of kung fu. She was using her claws, and tail to strike several trees, the way it looked it was dazzling, yet deadly. Shen thought that it wasn't kung fu at all, but some kind of other form of fighting he hasn't seen.

"Hm…" Shen thought to himself. He started watching her closely as an idea began to form in his mind.

Meili took her stance as she faced one of the trees. Her front, and hind legs stood at least eight inches apart from each other, her eyes fixed on a certain spot on the tree. Shen stood staring at it for a few seconds, Shen started to wonder if she would do anything at all. But than she ran for it, and she did it with incredible speed, when she got close to the tree, she raised her right paw, and her sharp claws came out as she fiercely slashed on of the trees. Her slash left a HUGE mark on the tree. She than ran back for the tree, and slashed it again with her left paw, making the slash mark even bigger. What she did next Shen couldn't believe. Meili backed away from the tree as far as she could, and ran at it at full speed, and once she got close enough, she used her right hind leg to kick the spot where she slashed the tree, nearly breaking it in half.

Shen was at total disbielf at this, but was impressed.

"She could be of good use to me," Shen said quietly to himself. She could, if Shen could figure out what to do next in plotting against China.

Meili took a few gasping breathes for a second before finally turning around and heading strait for the house. Shen quickly pulled away from the window, and sat back down on the mat he'd been laying on, he didn't want her to see he'd been spying on her. He looked towards the door as Meili came in.

"Well it looks like your up already," she said as she came in.

"How long have I've been here?" Shen asked the fox.

"Well, before you woke up yesterday, you've been here for three days, counting today that is."

"Three days?" Shen thought to himself, he'd must've been pretty beat up to be knocked out for that long.

"How you feeling?" Meili asked, with some concern in her voice.

Shen got up, and smiled at her. "Never better," he said as he walked past her. Meili jumped up in front of him.

"Yea right, I'll believe that when I see it."

"Oh really?" He believed he just got accepted a challenge, and quickly used his metal talons and swept the ground underneath Meili, causing her to loose balance and fall. Shen chuckled to himself. "Now if you don't mind, I've got some business to attend to." Shen walked out of the room with his long train following behind him.

Meili watched, confused, as he walked away, but got up and ran following him.

"What do you mean by 'business'?" She questioned him.

Shen looked down at her, and scoffed. "Nothing that you need to know." Shen suddenly stopped, and gasped as his wing began to burn with pain again.

Meili quickly pushed back his sleeve to reveal his damage wing. "See, your still recovering, I don't think you should go anywhere until it heals up."

Shen looked at her with somewhat annoyance in his stare, and pushed Meili back. "You will not tell me what to do," if there was one thing Shen hated, it was being ordered around by some teenager.

Meili got back up, as she started to get real annoyed by Shen as well. "Fine, do whatever you want, it's not like I care for your well being, or anything, I just don't want you getting more hurt than you already are." Her voice somewhat softened at those final words.

Shen looked at her again, she began to sound more like the Soothsayer. He remembered how the Soothsayer would always worry about him when he was younger. But Shen shook away the thought, not wanting to deal with the memories of the past.

"I don't need your concern, I'm perfectly fine," Shen said in a soft voice. He began walking again, but twitched again by the pain.

Meili rolled her eyes, "I'm not saying to do this for me, I'm trying to get you to think better for yourself, your obviously injured, real bad may I add, and you can't just go out with those kinds of injuries, you need to let them heal."

Ok, she really was starting to sound like the Soothsayer at this point, but Shen had to admit, Meili was right, but he needed to get back to Gongmen City, if he was lucky, there would still be some cannons, or metal to make cannons, left over in the factory. He could stay there once he returns, but it was the matter of getting back to the city that puzzled him. Meili said that the city was a two day journey from here, so he decided to stay, just to get ready.

"Your right," Shen said quietly. "I must recover."

Meili smiled, "Well I'm glad your starting to see things that way, now come, you've been out for sometime, and you must be hungry."

Shen watched as she walked into what he thought was the kitchen. Shen had to admit he was hungry, after all the last time he ate was before he started the invasion, which might've been over three days ago. Shen followed Meili into the kitchen, and took a seat at the table. Meili had a pot of something over a fire, but Shen was busy looking around the room to notice what she'd been cooking. The room was somewhat filled with paintings, one in peculiar was with a small white fox, and two big red foxes, which Shen had to guess was Meili and her parents. The picture showed the small fox cuddling up with her parents, looking at it Shen almost started to hold back tears, looking at it reminded of how he used to be with his parents, how he used to love being with them.

"Here you go," Meili placed a bowl of noodle soup on the table, "Enjoy."

Shen looked at the bowl of soup for a second before finally picking up the spoon to eat it. He had to say, it was pretty good. "This is, really good Meili."

Meili smiled, "Thank you, your probably the first who's complimented me on my cooking, than again you're the only one."

Shen looked over at Meili, "You don't get out much do you?"

"That obvious?" Meili chuckled a bit, than her expression went back to being serious, "I try to stay away from others, I mean I'm not anti-social, it's just that…" she began to trail off, before coming back to her senses, "Nothing, never mind."

Shen began to be confused. He started to realize something was strange about this fox. "It's alright, you don't have to explain anything to me if you don't want to."

Meili sighed, "Thanks for understanding, it's just that things haven't been the same for me."

"Why is that?" Shen asked, trying to get more out of her.

Meili shrugged, "I don't know, I've done…things. Things that I prefer I'd not talk about." Meili shot Shen a look.

"It's ok, I've done things in the past to, things that I'm starting to regret." Shen began thinking what would've happened if he didn't commit the panda genocide, but shook away the thought.

Meili looked at Shen, eyes wide. "Like what?"

Shen didn't know how to respond, he didn't want Meili to know he committed genocide. "Let's just say something real bad, something that almost cost me my life." Shen paused for a second while Meili looked at him. "Now Meili, if you must know I'll be taking my leave soon, I need to return to Gongmen City, to finish something I should've taken care of."

"Finish what, exactly?" Meili had to ask.

"Like I said before, nothing of your concern." Shen began to go back over to his sour attitude towards Meili.

"Well, can I help?" Meili asked.

Shen got real surprised from this, and looked at Meili like she was crazy. He was about to protest, when he remembered watching her fight earlier with such strength, speed, and grace, and remembered how she could be of use to him because of her fighting skills. "Well, if you want to, I could use it,"

Meili's looked up. "Really? I mean, I could help you, if you would tell me what it is I'd be helping with."

Shen sighed, "Don't worry, all in due time, but for now, let's just focus on getting to Gongmen City."

Meili nodded, "Ok, we'll leave as soon as you want."

Shen smiled, having Meili along would be a pain, but it would be necessary. Meili's power, and speed could be of some use if that Dragon Warrior tried to stop him again, which he knew he would. Besides, there was something about her that Shen wanted to know, and perhaps if he stayed with her a bit longer, he would finally find out what Meili has been trying to hide.


	3. The Journey Begins

"_The only thing that matters, is who you choose to be now," the panda said to him._

_Shen thought to himself for a minute. He couldn't give up the past, all that he's ever worked for, everything he ever wanted, he just couldn't._

"_Your right, than I…choose…THIS!" Shen then unleashed several blades, and charged strait at the panda. But the panda saw it coming, and quickly dodged his attack. Shen turned around and ran to grab his lance, and ran towards the panda again. He started unleashing several attacks, but the panda managed to dodge them all, but unknown to Shen, he was cutting the ropes that held the last cannon in place. The panda fell, and Shen landed near him, about ready to finally rid of him, but than Shen heard the sound of wood cracking, than quickly turned around to see that the final cannon, was about to fall onto him. He closed his eyes, ready to accept his well-deserved fate. As the cannon fell onto him, he suddenly felt himself going underwater, as if the falling cannon smashed the boat first before him, and than a piece of floorboard that Shen had been standing on collapsed as well, plunging him underneath._

_After Shen fell into the water, he than thought he was going to drown, a sudden burst of pain in his wing kept him from swimming upward, but he managed to kick his way up to the surface, and gasped for breath as he resurfaced. He made his way to a piece of driftwood, probably from the ship, and laid his head down. Shen started to go unconscious, the last thing he saw, was fireworks shooting off of his wrecked ship, than, nothing but darkness._

Shen awoke from the dream. This was the second time he had that dream, Shen started to hope that it wouldn't be reoccurring. He hated to have that moment be relived over, and over, living through it once was painful enough. Shen got up, and played around with his wing a bit, it was way better than the day before, he guessed the Meili's remedies were finally healing up his wing. He walked to the window and looked outside, the sun was still coming up, so it must've been early in the morning.

Shen walked out of the room, and into the hallway, he wondered if Meili was even up yet. He walked slowly to the front door, hoping not to wake Meili if she wasn't up. He slowly opened the door, and walked outside. He stood on the front porch as he looked around at the outside surroundings. Meili's house was right near the river, across the river was a wooded area. Shen looked up river, he couldn't see much with some of the trees blocking the way. Shen looked down river to see the exact same thing, only in the distant, there were mountains. It seemed that Meili's house was probably the only one standing around for miles.

He began thinking of Meili some more. She was really strange, than again, who knows for how many years she's been living alone out here in the middle of nowhere, living out here for a long time could be enough to make someone go crazy. But Meili didn't seem crazy, just real strange, this coming from the fact that she would avoid any question having to do with her past, and would occasionally drift off when saying something, as if she was going into a daydream.

"Your up early," a voice said from behind him. Shen quickly turned around to see Meili standing in the doorway.

Shen turned back around, "So are you." He said to her.

Meili walked up to him, "No, not really, I usually get up around this time, when the sun is just about to rise." Meili stared off into the distance, at the rising sun.

They both stood in silence for some time. Both looking off into the sky, which was slowly getting brighter. Shen took occasional glances at the fox, she seemed to be in another daydream by the looks of her. Shen had to admit, even though Meili was kind of strange, she did remind him a bit of himself when he was young. Shen began to even wonder if he was forming some sort of attachment to the vixen, but quickly shook away the thought. He didn't want to form any attachments, it would only get in the way of his destiny, she was only going to be useful for ridding the panda when the time comes.

"Are you finally feeling better?" Meili asked, breaking the silence.

Shen looked quietly at her, "Quite, my wing seems to be feeling better, definitely better than yesterday."

Meili smiled, "Good, than I guess your probably ready to head out to Gongmen City than?"

Shen nodded, "Yes, I would like to head out by sometime later today, if Gongmen City is as far away as you say it is, than I would like to leave as soon as possible." Shen looked over at Meili again, "You'd better start getting ready as well, that is, if you want to still help me."

Meili nodded, "Yes, I still wish to help, but only cause I think you need it. Plus, I would still like to know what I'm going to be helping with."

Shen chuckled softly to himself, "Like I said before, all in due time."

Meili rolled her eyes, "Yeah, well I would like to know when this 'due time' is going to be."

"Just as soon as we arrive back in Gongmen City, than I will reveal to you what you will be taking part in," Shen than tried to hide the faintest of smiles from Meili, hoping that she wouldn't be trying to catch onto him. Meili had skills that could even match the panda's, he didn't want her to know what he was really planning, and what he was using her for, till the time came for when she couldn't turn back.

"Alright, fine, sounds good to me," At this point Meili didn't seem to care if Shen told her what he was up to, or not. Probably because she's starting to get tired of him not answering to her questions. "Wait couldn't you just fly there?"

"I could, but it would only be for a few seconds, it's hard for me to fly with my tail feathers," He showed her his long train, he never preferred that term. Meili stared at his tail feathers for a second or two, before turning away to go back into the house.

"Where are you going?" Shen asked her.

Meili turned her head to him, "To get ready, what do you think? Gongmen City is a long ways from here remember. By the way, do you want your blades back?

Shen grew wide eyed, and quickly felt around his robe, he didn't have his swords, or blades with him. He shot Meili a "what did you do with them?" look.

Meili laughed a bit, "Don't worry, I have them, I took them out of you robe because I thought in your state, you might accidentally stab yourself in the heart, or something."

Shen looked at Meili a bit confused, he'd really thought that she might question why he had probably over 8 blades hidden in the sleeves of his robe, but she didn't seem concerned, at all actually.

Shen walked back in the house, Meili gestured him over to room, "Your stuff is in there, we'll leave when your ready." Meili walked away from him.

Shen entered the room, which he had to guess was the main room of the house, judging how it was bigger than the other rooms. He saw several of his blades on a table in the middle of the room, among them his lance. He picked it up, it had a few scratches, but should still be sharp. He picked up his remaining knives, and hid them back in his silk robe. He was about to leave the room when a painting caught his eye. It was hanging on the wall above the doorway, it was a painting of two foxes, a red one, and a white one, sleeping together in the sunlight. In the corner a few Chinese letters stood, which when Shen read it said "Mother and Daughter". Shen began to wonder why she had so many paintings of her family, if she was trying to forget them, she was doing a pretty bad job at it, but Shen didn't think that was the case.

When his parents banished him, he never felt more hurt, and betrayed. In his years of banishment, he did his best to forget about his parents, they didn't love him, they didn't care for him, why would they? They failed to see what he had wanted, and they weren't worth his time. He didn't find out they really loved him till the Soothsayer told him, they loved him so much that banishing him killed them, and was the hardest decision they ever had to make. When he heard that, it pained him inside a bit, for they really did love him, and he failed to realize it until than. Shen had to think that something did happen to Meili's parents, but what exactly?

"Hey you ready," Meili called out, pulling away Shen from his thoughts for about the millionth time. He looked to see Meili standing nearby waiting for him.

"Oh, y-yes, sorry about that," If Meili was going to interrupt his thoughts throughout this entire journey, than this was going to be a real long journey.

"It's alright, do you always do that, like go off into your thoughts?" Meili asked him as they walked out the door."

Shen stared down a Meili, "Sometimes, I prefer it to be a time where I can just ignore those around me, and just be alone with my thoughts."

"So when your like that, would you prefer that I would leave you be?"

Shen flashed a small smile at her, "That would be nice,"

Meili nodded, "There is a path not too far from here, that path should lead to the city."

Shen nodded at this, and the two started their long journey.

It was almost sunset before the two decided to settle down for the night. Meili gathered sticks for a fire, and Shen used his metal talons to light it. The two sat opposite of each other, both staring into the flames. They sat in silence for some time, until Meili spoke up.

"Why do you wear those metal things on your feet?" She asked him.

Shen looked up at her, it was a pretty weird question, but he thought that Meili just wanted to break the silence. At first, Shen didn't want to answer, but Meili looked like she wanted answers. Shen couldn't really make up an excuse.

"I wear them to protect my feet," Shen said calmly, trying to give Meili hints that he didn't want to talk about it.

"Protect them from what exactly?" Meili asked again. Shen started to get real annoyed, he didn't want to say that he was trying to hide burn scars.

"Nothing, just go to sleep, we'll start out again in the morning." Shen than settled himself into a sleeping position, and fell asleep, hoping not to have that dream again.

A few hours had passed before Shen awoke to a strange noise. He opened his eyes, and got up, the fire had just about went out, and Meili was asleep. He looked around the area, grabbing a blade inside in robe. He than heard a loud howl, and it was close.

"Wolves," Shen said quietly to himself. What would wolves be doing so far out here…unless.

Shen was then suddenly jumped by a large wolf, which he easily recognized right away, "Lang," Shen hissed at the wolf. Lang had Shen pinned to the ground, his one red eye looking fiercely into his. "I really thought I rid of you for you ignorance."

"Your going to pay for what you did to me Shen, and the rest of my brothers." Lang said angrily to him, obviously referring to when Shen fired the cannon at the ships.

"I'm sure I will, but how did your survive?" Shen asked, trying to distract him long enough to think of a way out of this.

"As soon as you threw your blade at me, I fell into the water, but I was soon rescued by that weird Soothsayer of yours who managed to save me before it was too late. I honestly thought you were dead Shen, but I saw you and that white fox earlier, and followed you here, where I am now going to finish you off, forever." Lang was in a fiery rage, wanting to give Shen the pain that he had endured.

Shen quickly kicked Lang off of him, and threw a blade a him, hoping that when it would strike, it would really kill him off. But Lang quickly dodged the blade, and went right for Shen again. Shen quickly swept his tail feathers along the ground, sending Lang flying into a tree, but that didn't stop him, and quickly went for Shen yet again, and this time, managing to grab him by his neck, and holding him up against a tree.

"It ends now Shen!" Lang called out as he was about to finish Shen off. But than an attack came from behind him, causing him to loose his grip on Shen. Shen looked behind Lang to see Meili, but she seemed, different.

"Let him go, and get out," Meili said in somewhat of a sinister voice that surprised Shen. Even though he'd only known her for a couple of days, this was the first time he's seen this dark side of hers, and, he rather liked it.

Lang got up and turned towards the fox. Meili looked at him with anger in her eyes. "Really?" Lang said, "and what are you going to do if I don't?"

Meili smiled a devious smile, "Easy…THIS!" Meili than lunged forward at Lang, and scratched his face, leaving a deep claw mark on the side. Lang tried to attack, but Meili's speed outmatched his, and she attacked him again, and again, leaving fierce marks all over his body. Shen never seen anything like her, when she striked, she striked without mercy.

Finally Lang couldn't seem to take anymore, "Alright, alright, I surrender," he took short breathes, Meili seemed satisfied.

"Good," she said, "now if you know what's good for you, you'll leave, now" Meili shot a death look at him.

Lang got up quickly, but just as he was about to leave, he turned towards Shen again. "Don't think this is it Shen, I'll be back." Than Lang ran off into the darkness.

Meili than turned to Shen, he seemed stunned, after all, he never saw anyone fight with such fierceness before.

Meili turned away from Shen, with sadness. "I'm sorry you had to see that," she said quietly, as if in almost a whimper. She than walked away, and laid back down to fall back asleep.

Shen than soon did the same. He learned one thing today, that he'd better be careful around her, for she seemed much more dangerous that she looked.

**A/N: Hi everyone, well I thought I better start off writing these authors' notes, just to give you a sense of what's going on. Well, first off, thank you for all the good reviews, it's nice to know that people are reading (coming from the fact that I don't write much). Keep 'em coming, I enjoy hearing about what people have to say.**

**Well Meili is defiantly a real good fighter, but she doesn't seem to like fighting at all. And Yes, Lang IS Wolf Boss, I didn't like how he died.**


	4. The Road to Peace

_All he could see was darkness. Just plain darkness. He felt like his entire body was being crushed. He couldn't breath, or was having a hard time breathing. He could hear the sound of beating, his own heart beating, growing slower, and slower. Than he started an image coming into view. It was just white, and blurry at first, before coming into view as a familiar figure, Meili. All he could hear was her saying his name over, and over again, and pleading with him to hang on, and wake up. She was even sounding like she was crying, or on the verge of tears. His heartbeat was getting slower by the second, and Meili was going out of view again, before fading away, and going back into darkness. He could hear himself saying something, but it was really unclear. Than, the heartbeat stopped._

Shen jolted awake, breathing hard. His eyes were wide, and he quickly put his wing to his chest. His heartbeat was fast, but at least it was still beating. Shen sighed of relief, glad that he didn't die in his sleep. But, what did he just dream of? It was weird, it kind of felt like he was dying, yet he wasn't, and Meili was calling out for him, and he literally felt like his body was being crushed. All of it was too strange to compromise. But Shen shook it off as just another nightmare.

Shen looked over to see Meili still asleep, but for all he could've known she could be up already because her back was turned to him. He remembered what she did last night, it was unlike anything he'd ever seen. The way she fought was unusual, but very effective. But when she was fighting, she became a totally different creature, like there was some darkness in her, and that darkness had taken control.

He looked to the sky, the sun had already risen, but the sky was somewhat dark which probably meant that it was going to rain today, which meant he'd better start out again, and get closer to Gongmen City. He had no idea how much distance they had covered yesterday, but it felt really long. They'd been following the river, which by Shen's guess led to the city. Speaking of which, he decided to head down to the river, he could use something refreshing after what he's been through.

Shen walked down the small slope to where the river was. At first, he kind of hesitated before walking up to the water, probably just a shock reaction from nearly drowning before, but he quickly overcame it as he kneeled down by the water. He splashed some water on his face, it felt real refreshing to him, than he bent down a bit more to look at his reflection in the water. It kind of stunned him a bit to see his own reflection, he couldn't remember the last time he looked at himself. Much to his surprise, he looked way better than he thought he did. His feathers were a shining white, as opposed to being covered with dust, and dirt after the panda shot him with that cannonball. He had to guess that Meili fixed him up while he was knocked out. Speaking of which, he lift up his right sleeve to see his wing still wrapped in the bandages that Meili put on him a few days ago. Shen was hesitant to take them off at first, but they already had been bandaged for a couple of days, so he guessed it wouldn't pain him to take them off.

Slowly, and carefully, he started to unwrap them. It didn't take long before the bandages were completely off. The cuts on his wing that were once a deep red color, were now a light red, almost a pink color. Shen was relieved that his injuries were healing, and had to admit that Meili wasn't that bad, she could become his own personal healer if he ever got hurt again by that panda.

Suddenly, Shen felt pain in his head, almost causing him to fall into the water, but he managed to back away from the water before falling in. The pain started growing worse, and it caused him to fall back. Now laying on the ground, Shen put his wings to his head, and closed his eyes, hoping for the pain to stop, it was worse than it ever had been. Suddenly as soon as it began, it was gone. But when Shen opened his eyes he was someplace different, everything was white around him, except the grass he was standing on. He saw a figure standing near him, he got up to see that the figure was Master Oogway.

Shen had heard stories of the great master of kung fu, but, wasn't he supposed to be dead? But Shen looked around again, there was nothing but white, where the heck was he?

"Your in a place called_ Jingshen zhi lu, _it is a place where those who have come near the face of death come to face their sins, in order for them to come to terms with it." Oogway spoke to him kindly.

Shen just stood there looking at him, "What on Earth are you saying?" Shen asked, obviously not getting what Oogway had just said to him.

Oogway just chuckled at his remark, "Think of this as a place where your finally going to learn Shen."

Shen just looked at Oogway, confused "Learn what exactly?" There appeared to be some bitterness in Shen's voice.

Oogway just smiled at him, "What your true destiny is meant to be."

Shen started to get angry at this, "I know what my destiny is," he said bitterly to the elder tortoise, "and that is to rule all of China."

Oogway stared into Shen's blood red eyes, "That is what you think is you destiny, but it's not _your_ destiny."

Shen, again, grew confused, and that only made him more angry, "I know my own destiny," he said fiercely.

"Do you Shen? Ruling China is what you want, but it's not what you need."

Shen, once again, looked at Oogway with confusion, "What I want, what I need, is there really a difference?"

Oogway nodded, "There is a difference, China is what you want, but love, and peace is what you need."

This had really hit Shen's nerve, "I don't need love!" he yelled out, "love is a weakness, an emotion that I can't waste time with," the next sentence he spoke softly "let alone have."

Oogway again chuckled, "Your right, you don't have love, but it will always find a way to you."

Than a cloud appeared. Shen looked up into it, in it were two figures, peacocks. "M-mom, d-dad," the words could barely escape Shen's mouth as he remembered back once more to when the Soothsayer, his Nana, told him how much his parents loved him. Shen quickly shook it off. "N-no, my parents didn't love me, they never did."

Oogway looked at Shen again, "Did they really? Or is that just something your telling yourself."

Shen started feeling pain again, but somewhere different than before, he was feeling pain in his chest, his heart. "They never loved me, after what I did, I thought I would make them proud, but instead the banished me. How could they banish their own son?" At this point Shen was trying his best to fight off tears. "H-how could they fo-forgive me?"

"It's not the matter of them forgiving you, it's the matter of you forgiving yourself, and once you forgive yourself, you can find peace."

Shen once again looked at Oogway, but he had no confused look this time, "How can I?"

Once again a cloud appeared, but only this time the image that appeared in the cloud was a fox, Meili.

Oogway smiled at the image, "Ahh, this one, more to her than meets the eye. You see Shen, you and her have more in common than you think."

Shen, once again, looked confused. How could she help him? And what could she possibly have in common with him? "Her? How could she help me?" Shen asked him.

Oogway smiled at him, "How indeed. How can she help you, and how can you help her."

"What?" Shen asked, not confused, but perplexed. "How **I** can help **her**?"

Oogway nodded, "How you both can help each other, and find peace."

At this moment, Oogway started to disappear. The pain returned to Shen's head once again, and he closed his eyes waiting for it to stop. Once it was gone, Shen opened his eyes again to find himself by the river. Looking up to the sky, he couldn't tell if time had passed or not, as it was still the same dark color it was before, which meant it still was going to rain.

Shen walked back up the slope to find that Meili was up, she instantly smiled when Shen came into her view.

"Hey, your back, I was starting to wonder if you left without me, not that it would matter anyway, I could easily find you if you left."

Shen looked at Meili, _really looked_. Her fur was still a pure white, and her eyes were still a bright red. But for the first time Shen noticed she was wearing something around her neck. Looking closely, he could see it was a necklace that had the Yin-Yang symbol on it. He never noticed it before.

"So, um, you ready, Gongmen City should be close, by my guess, if we start now, we could get there by nightfall, or later." Meili told Shen, pulling him away from his thoughts.

"Yes, lets head out." There was some tension in Shen's voice, but Meili didn't notice, and the two headed out once more.

It wasn't long after they started out again, that a rumble of thunder made an echo through the forest, startling Meili.

"Eeekkk," the albino fox cried out, as she quickly attached herself to Shen.

This surprised Shen, and he quickly pushed her away from him, "What's you problem?" He asked her fiercely.

Meili stood back from Shen, "What? Oh nothing, I'm fine," she said, a bit frightened, before she started walking out again.

Not long after, another crack of thunder echoed through the forest, only much louder this time.

"Ahh!" Meili screamed out, going back over to Shen, and clinging to his robe. Shen once again pushed Meili away from him, "Will you stop that! What is the matter with you!" Shen screamed out at her.

Meili was way frightened than before, "S-sorry, I'm just kind of, sort of, afraid of storms."

Shen was surprised by this. What had been a fearless spirit yesterday, was a timid, and frightened soul today. Soon enough, it began to downpour.

"Hurry, let's find shelter," Shen said to her, and soon enough the two were running through the forest, hoping to find some sort of shelter before the storm got worse.

Soon enough, they found a cave. It was a small cave, but at least it would protect them from the storm. The two situated themselves in the cave, all they could do was watch the rain fall, the lightning flash, and the thunder roar. But with each crack of thunder, and flash of lightning, Meili would quickly go up against Shen, and bury her face in his robe. At first, Shen kept pushing her away, but she'd already done it so many times that Shen just gave up, and let her go up against him as she may.

Shen began to think about what Oogway had said, _"How you both can help each other, and find peace."_ He still didn't know what he meant by helping Meili, what could she possibly need help with?

Another really loud crack of thunder had Meili up against Shen once more. Shen sighed, if helping Meili would lead to his destiny, and finding peace, than it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Shen put his wing around Meili. Meili was surprised by this, and looked up at Shen, but he was trying his best to avoid her gaze. Meili saw this, and looked away, instead she looked back out to the rain. Shen could feel Meili shaking somewhat, but was beginning to calm down, but with each crack of thunder, she would once again rub up against Shen. Shen prayed that the storm wouldn't last much longer, he was beginning to get sick of this girl going up against him like that, but by the looks of the storm, something told him that the storm wouldn't end soon. Than, Shen had an idea, crazy enough to work.

"So, Meili, your afraid of storms? That's quite a coincidence." Shen said to her.

Meili looked up at him, "W-what do you mean?" she asked him, with some fear in her voice.

Shem smiled at her, "Well, you see, when I was young, I also had a fear of storms."

"Really?" Meili asked him.

Shen nodded, "Yes, till one day when my Nana" the word felt weird as he spoke it, "told me of a way to make me feel less afraid of them."

Meili's eyes lit up, "Really? How?"

Shen looked up into the sky to see a fork of lightning light it up. "You see, I imagine the lightning as a flash of a firework, and the thunder as sound it makes when it goes off in the night sky." Soon after he spoke, a crack of thunder roared across the sky. Meili flinched, but she didn't go to Shen like she did before.

"See, it's helping already." Shen said to Meili.

Meili smiled, an actual smile, at him, which kind of made him feel weird, for no one, except his Nana had ever smiled at him that way. She stood back from Shen, and laid down on the cave floor, probably about to go to sleep, and wait for the storm to pass. Before she fell asleep, she looked over to Shen again, "Thank you, Shen," she said as she closed her ruby eyes.

Shen turned back to look at the rain pouring down. He was closer to Gongmen City now, but a quick thought crossed his mind, is this what he really wants? All of China? Shen quickly ignored the thought, he'd already came this far, and he wasn't turning back.

Shen than walked over to where Meili was sleeping, and than walked over to the wall that was opposite from her. He sat down into his sleeping position. _"You both can help each other," _where the words that were playing over, and over again in his head as he slowly fell asleep.

**A/N: Once again, I would like to thank everyone for the reviews, they really mean a lot :D. So, a bit of foreshadowing perhaps? You'll have to wait, and see! "Jingshen zhi lu" means "spirit road" in Chinese, I thought it would suit it. **

**Sorry if the whole thunderstorm scene seemed a bit OOC for Shen, but I've been reading too many sweet moments with him. Actually the whole thunderstorm scene is based on a personal experience of mine. I've been scared of thunderstorms for the longest time, until I came to think of them kinda like fireworks, so it's kind of helping me get over my fear.**

**Reviews are much appreciated. **


	5. The Night of Revealing part I

Shen didn't know how much time had past, but when he woke up the storm was long gone. He looked to see if Meili was up, but when he looked over she wasn't there. Shen got up and looked around outside, the tree leaves, and the grass were still wet from the rain. It was still cloudy out, but sunlight was shining through in parts.

He than heard sounds of fighting, it was close, probably not too far from where he was standing. He walked over to the source of the fight, careful not to make too much noise approaching, but with his metal talons, that could be a problem. He made each step as quiet as possible, luckily his talons didn't make too much noise against the wet grass. As he approached, he saw that Meili was training by herself again. He had almost forgotten how good of a fighter she was, and how she fought off Lang. He hid himself behind a tree, and got down low, so that way she wouldn't see him spying on her again.

When Shen looked, Meili wasn't really fighting per se, she was just practicing tumbling, and cart wheeling around while making fighting sounds, as if she was fighting someone, how strange. Shen tried to peak out some more, to get a better look, but not before Meili caught him moving out of the corner of her eye first, than moving as quickly as the wind to pounce on top of him. It happened so fast that Shen couldn't react first.

It only took Meili a second to realize who exactly she just lunged at. When she first caught glance of Shen's red eyes as she pinned him to the ground, she immediately got off him.

"Shen! What the heck? You scared me! You of all should know never to sneak up on a fox when she's training."

Shen got up, and brushed away some dirt off his silk robe. Shen stared daggers at her for a moment, he was somewhat enraged at Meili for jumping him, but managed to calm himself down. Meili didn't sound like she was angry at him, just really annoyed.

"Listen, I just came looking for you when I heard fighting sounds, I didn't asked to be jumped on by a crazed fox," Shen tried to say in the nicest way possible.

"Well, whatever I'm fine, I just woke up before you did, and I didn't want to wake you, so I just thought I'd do something while waiting for you," Meili stood in silence for sometime, "So listen, we're nearly there to the city, you want to keep going?"

Shen stared at Meili for a second, she seemed more in a hurry than he did, but something seemed more off than usual about her, but Shen just couldn't figure it out. Shen didn't say a word to her, and began to head out, with Meili following behind.

They didn't head out too far before they came to a small abandon village. It was somewhat covered in fog, but it wasn't so much that they couldn't see where they were going. The village itself looked like no one had lived in it for a long time. The houses, and huts were all burnt down, yet some were still standing. Shen looked around, looking at all the burnt houses made him remember, when he came here all those years ago, when he came here, and nearly sealed his own fate.

_The fires were burning, and burning, and the pandas were screaming trying to flee, but to no anvil, the wolves were faster, and caught up with them, killing them on sight. Shen was looking around, satisfied, and proud. _

"_Get them all!" He ordered out to his wolf minions. He had to make sure he killed every single one of those pandas, to insure that what the Soothsayer had seen would never become true. But suddenly one of the pandas started fighting back, trying to protect his loved ones, and sacrificing himself to make sure they get away. _

"_Get our son, and run away!" the male panda cried out to them. Shen quickly launched his a few of his blades at him, mortally wounding him, than went after the female panda that was quickly getting away. _

_Shen ran as fast as he could to catch up with her, he saw his wolves were also going after her. _

"_Keep your sights on her, make sure she doesn't get away!" He told them. They didn't go far before losing their sights of her. "Find her!" Shen ordered them. Not long after they lost her, they found her again, and she looked as if she wanted them to find her. None the less, the wolves attacked her, and Shen ran up to her to deliver the final blow to the last of the pandas._

Looking back on that memory, Shen could help but feel slight remorse. That whole night, it seemed like it happened so long ago, and it did, but to Shen, it felt even longer.

Meili looked around the village, "I wonder what happened to this place, everything is destroyed, it looked like no one has been here in a long while. It kind of looks like my village after…" Meili suddenly stopped talking once she knew what she was talking about. Shen also suddenly looked over at her, hoping that she would say more. "Nothing…it's n-nothing." she stuttered. Shen turned away from her, and continued walking.

They didn't walk too far before Meili gasped with pain. Shen stopped, and turned around to see what was the matter. He saw that her front left leg was bleeding, very badly.

"What happened?" he asked her.

Meili was holding her leg, trying to stop the bleeding. "I cut my leg on a thorn bush, I didn't see it," she than gasped with pain again.

Shen rolled his eyes, than again in this somewhat foggy area, and with lots of tall grass everywhere, he wasn't surprised. "Well, can you still walk?" He asked.

Meili laid her leg down, and tried walking, yet every time her leg hit the ground, it shook with pain, and it continued to bleed. "I can, but I don't know for how long, plus, it's really bleeding."

Shen started to get a bit worried. Firstly, they were out in the middle of an abandon village alone, secondly, they were miles from any form of civilization, and thirdly, if they didn't get help soon, she could lose a lot of blood, and if that happened, well Shen tried not to think about that.

Shen looked around, looking for somewhere where Meili could heal, than he saw a hut that was badly burnt, but still standing, and that was good enough for him. "Come on, let's go over to that hut over there." They both walked over to the hut, Shen had to help Meili out, since she was having a hard time walking by herself. Once they got over to the hut, they saw that it had newly blankets, and pillows around, which meant that someone had recently been here.

"Well, I could say that I'm very surprised to see you here," a sweet, and gentle voice said from behind them. Shen recognized the voice, and although he couldn't believe it, he turned around quickly, and wide-eyed, to the Soothsayer, who was standing right behind them. "but than again, I knew you never died in the first place."

Shen himself, was very surprised to see the Soothsayer way out here, in fact, what was she doing way out here? Meili on the other hand, was just surprised to see someone here.

"Whoa, who are you? And what are you doing here? And how do you know him?" Meili gestured over to Shen.

The Soothsayer chuckled to herself, "Clam down child, I will answer your questions, but first, let's have a look at that injury." Meili was too busy focusing on Shen, and the Soothsayer that she didn't even notice that she was still bleeding from her injured leg. "Don't worry, I'll be able to fix it right up."

The Soothsayer led Meili over to a blanket where she had her sit down. While the Soothsayer began to work on Meili, Shen couldn't help but remember when he himself would get injured, and the Soothsayer would do everything she could to make him feel better, and the injuries clear up.

"So, um, I'm sorry what's your name?" Meili asked, a bit awkwardly.

The Soothsayer looked up at Meili, and smiled, "My name is Anming," she began, Shen looked up in surprise, he never referred to her by her real name, as he wasn't too found of it. "but you can also refer to me as Soothsayer."

Meili looked at her confused, "Why Soothsayer?" she asked.

Shen interrupted them, "Because that's what she is." Meili than stared at her wide-eyed, "You're a soothsayer? Like the ones that have a gift that can make them see into the future?"

Soothsayer nodded at her, as she wrapped Meili's leg with bandages.

Meili smiled at her, "That's really amazing," Meili than stopped herself, trying to remember what she was going to say. "Oh yes, um, Soothsayer, how do you know Shen, when you first appeared to us, it looked as if you were talking to him."

Soothsayer looked over at Shen, and smiled at him. Shen didn't know whether or not to look away, he remembered how he set her free right before his invasion carried out, mainly because he didn't want her to be apart of the chaos that was sure to come. "Well, you see young one, I do know Shen, in fact you could kind of say I'm his Nana."

This made both Shen and Meili look towards the Soothsayer in surprise, than Meili looked over at Shen. "What? Shen, was Soothsayer, or Anming, really your Nana?"

Shen looked over at Meili, a bit embarrassed, but than retained a bitter face. "That…was a long time ago." Shen than turned away from them, and walked over the edge of the porch as it began to gently sprinkle.

Meili looked over at Shen, with a slight worried expression, than turned back over at the Soothsayer. "What is he talking about?" she asked, a bit confused.

The Soothsayer looked over at Shen, Shen had his head down, and his eyes closed, but opened them slightly, and looked over at the Soothsayer, than to Meili, "There are many things about me you don't know, terrible things, and some not so terrible."

Meili looked over at Shen, with some consent, "Really? I guess you, and me kind of have the same deal."

Shen almost nearly came at Meili, if it wasn't for the Soothsayer getting in his way, "You have no clue about the things I have done, if you did, you would have every right to avoid, and even fear me," he had some anger in his voice.

Meili flinched a bit, but the Soothsayer reassured her. "I don't fear you Shen, even if I did know what you did, I still wouldn't." Meili told him.

Shen scoffed, than turned back away from her, "I don't need your consent, everyone fears me, and hates me, eventually," he sighed.

Meili looked over at Shen still, and tried to go over to him, but her injured leg refused her to do so. Soothsayer than spoke up, "Not all that is true, even after what he did, I still loved him, and so did his parents."

Shen flinched at the sound of his parents, "If they still loved me, than why did they banish me?" He bitterly asked the Soothsayer.

Meili gasped a bit, "Banished?" From the sound of her voice, she started to become very confused.

The Soothsayer reassured her again, and then turned back to Shen, "They only did what they thought was best for you, it really pained them to send you away."

Shen began to protest again, but than remembered that night again, when she told him that he parents really did love him, and it killed them to send him away, now he was beginning to think that maybe it was true.

"Wait, wait, wait, will someone please explain this to me?" Meili called out. She obviously didn't know what the two were talking about, than again, how could she, Shen hadn't told her a thing about his past, and what he had done. Shen, and the Soothsayer both exchanged looks, Shen than sighed, "It was a long time ago, but it still affects me today. You see, my life wasn't like everyone else's, I was born sickly, and because of this, many thought that I wouldn't live long, including my parents, that's why they cast me aside, and that's why I thought for the longest time, I thought they didn't love me."

Meili than interrupted, "But, what I want to know is why they banished you, and why you say I should fear you, and why everyone hates you."

Shen glared over at Meili, than rolled his eyes, better to get strait to the point than, but he didn't know how quite to say it, "I…committed genocide, I killed off all the pandas in China, or so I thought."

Meili gasped silently, but yet, she wasn't too shocked. The Soothsayer, however, only watched as he told his story.

"Anyway, when I returned, I was so proud of myself, but my parents weren't, and so they banished me from Gongmen City forever. Never in my life have I felt so hated, and betrayed, but after than day, my name was known across China, of what I had done. I spent my years in exile creating a powerful weapon, a weapon that could let me have what I always have wanted, China. But all of it was in vain, it ended up all being destroyed, and almost destroying me in the process."

Meili only stood there in silence, but what was on her face wasn't fear, or hatred, it was hurt, for him. "Listen Shen, I'm sorry for what's happened to you, and what you did, but that doesn't make you who you are, you actions don't decide that, it's what you do with your life, who you choose to be."

Shen turned over to Meili, there was that saying again, why did it always come back to him. "I chose who I wanted to be long ago, and it's too late to change it around."

The Soothsayer came up to him, "It's never too late to decide who you are Shen."

Shen stood in silence, than he remembered Oogway, and how he said he could still find peace, and love, even though he didn't want it.

The three of them stood in silence for a while, Shen walked over to the edge of the porch again, and looked up at the full moon. He thought of how it all came to this, how he ended up like this.

"Shen," he heard Meili's voice speak up.

Shen turned over to Meili, she was looking into the fire, with a sad expression on her face, she seemed sad, and depressed.

"Listen, there's something I've been meaning to tell you, something I've been trying to hide from others, and from myself, for a long time."

Shen looked at Meili, confused, "What?" he asked.

"Tonight, your going to find out who I am, and what I did, you see, I may seem like a normal fox, but just a bit strange, but I'm actually a killer, and I can't be trusted.

Shen was still confused, "What are you trying to get at?"

Meili looked up into Shen's eyes, her ruby eyes glowing, "I'm going to tell you my story, and after it's finished, your going to have a whole new outlook on me, and I doubt that you'll ever look at me the same again."

**A/N: Hello everyone. Yes I finally got chapter five up, sorry it took so long, I didn't like the original that I had planned out, so I had to edit this almost five times .. **

**Yes, cliffhangers, my favorites. Don't worry I already have part two started, it's just the matter of how much this week takes out of me, and I've already been stressed from this past weekend.**

**Reviews are gladly appreciated ****J.**


	6. The Night of Revealing Part II

**A/N: Hello everyone :D. Well here is part 2, this took me forever to do, longer than I thought actually. Just saying, this chapter is LONGG, longer the previous chapters. So without further au do…**

Shen just stared at her blankly for a few seconds before fully realizing that she was going to tell him everything.

"But, why are you choosing to tell me this now?" Shen asked, it was kind of weird to him that she would decide to tell him her life's story without an explanation.

Meili shrugged, "I guess when I heard your story, about what you had done, it reminded me so much of what I had done. I didn't commit genocide like you did, but something way worse."

Shen stared at her, "What could be worse than committing a genocide?" Shen thought that the worse thing someone could do in this world was murdering an entire species, what could be worse than that?

Meili than suddenly looked him dead on, her ruby eyes have never shone fiercer. "How about killing your own parents?"

Shen at first thought that she was lying, for who would even do that? Shen had to admit to himself that even though he hated his parents, he didn't hate them enough to kill them. But after he looked into her eyes, he saw that she really was telling the truth.

"You, you can't be serious," Shen told her, still a bit disbelieving. Yet, being a vixen with the fighting talent she has, Shen started to fit two, and two together.

"Well, it wasn't killing both my parents, mainly my father," Meili looked back down into the burning fire, Shen could've sworn he begun to see tears in her eyes.

Shen walked a bit closer to her, he got a strange feeling off her, it seemed like depressing sadness, or hard guilt. Either way, Shen did not like the feeling, and decided to stay back fro her.

"You killed…your father?" Shen asked, the words slipped quietly off his tongue, but Meili still managed to hear it.

Meili shot a glance over at Shen, than looked back into the fire, it was a while before she replied, "…yes, I did," she said quietly. She took a few gasping breathes, "It wasn't done by accident, I did it for a reason."

Shen gasped silently, something was seeming oddly familiar, but Shen shook it off, "You had a reason?"

Meili than closed her eyes, "It had to be done, I had no choice, he was destroying everything!" There was strain in her voice.

Shen started to get interested in this, but was starting to get a bit irritated that she wasn't getting strait to her story, "Listen vixen, would you please get strait to the point?"

Meili opened her eyes slightly, "I see your impatient when it comes these kind of things, very well, since I don't know where to start, I think it's good to start at the beginning."

Shen kept his eyes on Meili, she sighed heavily before beginning.

"It all seemed so long ago, than again it's been six years, yet it all felt like it happened not so long ago. I was only eleven went it began."

_The sunset light shone through the flower covered fields, Meili, and her friend Xin, were running through the sunlit field, Xin was chasing after Meili, and the two were laughing playfully, before Meili suddenly stopped. Xin quickly caught up to her, and touched her upon the shoulder._

"_Your it, Meili! Come on, let's see if you can catch me," he circled around her before running off, yet Meili didn't move. Xin saw that, and quickly ran back over to her, "Hey Meili, aren't ya gonna come after me?"_

_Meili stared off into the sunset before turning to Xin, "Oh no, my mom told me to be home by sunset, and it's almost past sunset."_

_Xin rolled his eyes, "Don't worry Li, we can get back before dark, what's the rush anyway?"_

_Meili sighed, she didn't want to tell Xin about the recent happenings, "My mom just doesn't want me to out after dark, that's all." she lied._

_Xin scoffed, "Really? She always let us play in the fields after dark, plus thanks to the mountains, it's pretty hard for thieves, and bandits to get here, what's with your mother's sudden worriment?"_

_Meili rolled her eyes back and forth, thinking of a better explanation, "Uh…I don't know, must be something, or other," she said nervously._

_The silver fox laughed, "Meili, I know when your lying."_

_Meili eyed him, "Whatever, all I know is that she told me to be back by now, so come on."_

_The two began running across the field again, this time in the opposite direction, towards the village._

"I lived in a small village, it was in the valley of a long mountain range, mountains covered one side, and a lush forest covered the other, in all, it was a beautiful village, safe from harm from any outsider, until that day happened."

_The twosome entered the small fox village, it was nearly dark after they arrived. Some foxes were out and about, some were heading in for dinner, and to get to sleep.____Meili, and Xin walked through, there was a fire burning in the middle of the village, where some foxes were telling stories, and just talking about their day. The two continued walking through the village, till they got to a medium sized hut._

"_I'll see ya tomorrow, Meili, goodnight," Xin said to her._

_Meili waved, "Goodnight Xin," she said to him._

_Xin started off, and Meili entered her house. Her mother was waiting for her as she came in._

"_Meili, it's about time you came back," her mother said to her, in almost an angry tone._

_Meili giggled nervously, "Sorry mother, I lost track of time, how's dad doing?" she asked worried._

_Her mother sighed softly, "I don't know honey, he seems to be getting worse."_

_Meili's eyes suddenly widened, "Worse? How can it be getting worse? He's had this for almost five months now, it's impossible for it to be getting worse."_

_Her mother shushed her, "I know how you feel Meili, trust me I feel the same, but like Jia Li said, it will be a while before he recovers."_

"About five months before all that happened, my father came down with a serious illness. He suffered from seeing horrible visions, and he spent most of his time in his room. We took him to the town elder, Jia Li, she said she never seen an illness like this, and told us that it would be a long while before he recovered, if he ever recovered. We would go in and take care of him, but overtime I was scared to even go near him, every time I would he would keep telling me things, telling me that he saw me in visions, telling me he saw me killing him in his visions. It got to a point where I was too afraid to go in his room anymore."

"_Listen, Meili, I know your scared, but I need help taking care of your father tonight," her mother told her, as they both stood outside her father's room._

_Meili backed away, "No way! You remembered what happened last time I went in there, besides, I really don't want my non-possible future read."_

_Her mother rolled her eyes, "Meili, I know how you feel about this, but you have to, plus you haven't seen your father in almost a month."_

_Meili sighed softly to herself, it was true, she hasn't seen her father for a month, but the last time she went in to see him, he said he saw "some bad is going to happen soon, something bad to us both." That really made her scared, telling her freaky visions of her killing him was one thing, but that "something bad" really made her start to worry, and she's been afraid to go in there ever since, at fear of those visions of his._

"_I don't know mother, what all do you want me to do?" she asked, beginning to slightly shake._

_Her mother reassured her, "Don't worry dear, all you have to do is watch him while I give him some herbs that Jia Li gave me."_

_Meili stared at her mother, confused, "And what does me watching him have anything to do with you feeding him?"_

"_Jia Li said that these herbs will help clam his nerves, and probably make his visions go away," she said while opening the door._

"_Yea, probably is the key word," Meili sighed._

_Her mother walked in, "Just trust me Meili, now come on," Meili followed her mother into her father's room._

Meili stopped for a second, and took a few gasping breathes, Shen looked at her, and wondered if she would even continue. It would be a few minutes before she picked up.

_The room was dark, except for a few lit candles around the room, with the candles lit, it kind of made the room look, and feel, real eerie. Her father was laying down on a hay bed, he seemed to be sleeping, but the black fox opened his eyes when they got near. His golden eyes looked swiftly between his wife, and his daughter._

"_Ah, my dearest, it's good to see you again," his voice was soft, and a bit raspy. He got up a bit, so he could better see his daughter._

_Meili kept her distance from him, "Hi…dad," the words slipped quietly off her tongue, and her heart started beating faster._

_Her mother approached him, "Here you go dear, these herbs should help you," she handed him the herbs. He looked at them for a second, before eating some of them. _

_Meili watched her father eat the herbs, she really wanted to get out of the room, before anything happened. She was getting a bad feeling off him, and she didn't like it._

_After he finished eating, he looked over to Meili again, which almost made her flinch back. "Oh, my dear Meili, I missed seeing you beautiful face," he said to her, almost sadly._

_Meili tried to say something back, but the words couldn't come out. Her mother came up to her, "She missed seeing you too," her mother said, an obvious lie, although, not a total one. Meili missed her dad, but she didn't miss seeing him, she missed how he used to be. _

_Her father smiled, "Oh, I know, and I got a feeling she'll miss me even more after tomorrow," he said in a sly tone._

_Meili's heart skipped a beat when he said that. Something seemed more off about him than usual, he was different than he was one month ago._

_Meili's mother gestured her out of the room, "Ok, Meili, I think you helped out enough, now get to bed."_

_Meili thanked the Gods for allowing her mother to make her get out, and she couldn't get out of there fast enough, but before she did, she took one last look at her father. Meili could remember a time when the two of them would go play in the forest, and everything was as good as ever, but Meili soon realized that those times were long gone, and know that only made her heart break._

"That night I went to bed, and like every night back than, I prayed to the Gods to make my father better, and to get rid of this curse that had fallen upon him. Little did I realize that the next day would change my life forever. It actually started like any other day."

_Meili, and Xin ran through the sun soaked forest together, the two loved running through the forest, especially Meili, it always made her feel better about life, and made her forget all her worries. Meili ran ahead of Xin, but he quickly caught up to her, and pounced on top of her, causing the two to roll across the path. As soon as they stopped, the two laughed together, than got up, the two continued to giggle as they walked through the forest, until Meili stopped, and a saddened expression crossed her face. Xin saw this, and worried for his friend._

"_What's the matter Li?" Xin asked her._

_Meili suddenly looked up to Xin, "I don't know Xin, it's just the things that have been going on recently."_

_Xin looked at her confused, "What things? You can tell me Meili."_

_Meili sighed, she didn't know how to put it, out of all the foxes in the village, Xin was the only one who didn't know about her father, she never gave him a good reason for not telling him, but he knew bits and pieces, just not the whole ordeal._

"_It's my father, and the things that have been going on lately at home, I don't know, all of it has got me down," she told him, and it was true, Meili had began to decline into a state of depression when her father got the illness, and her life hasn't been the same since he got it._

_Xin put his paw on her, "Listen Meili, I know your father has got you down, but it's times like these where you have to be strong, and keep your hopes up, things will get better soon."_

_Meili smiled, Xin was right, it's times like these where we have to be strong, and hope for the best. Meili nodded, knowing that Xin was right. The two were about to set off again, when Meili caught the smell of smoke._

"_Hey Xin, is it me, or do I smell smoke," she said as she sniffed the air. _

_Xin looked at her like she was crazy for a sec, than sniffed the air himself, and he did pick of the scent of smoke, "Your right Meili, but where is it coming from?"_

_The two looked around, than Meili saw think, black smoke coming up from where the village was. "Oh no, Xin, hurry let's get back to the village, quick."_

_Xin followed Meili's gaze, and saw the smoke, and the twosome quickly raced back to the village._

"At that moment I started to fear, I knew the smoke was coming from the village, and I started to worry, worry for everyone in the village, and worry for my parents, but I worried for others, when I should've worried for myself."

_The two could see the fire from a mile away, it was big, and it was burning. They ran up to the burning village to see burning huts, and foxes running away in fright. Xin managed to stop one of the foxes._

"_What's going on, what's happening?" he asked, there was total fear in his voice._

"_It's Zang, he's finally lost it, he's destroying everything, get out of here while you still can," the vixen quickly ran away as soon as she finished._

_Meili's eyes widened, "n-no, it can't be."_

"As soon as I heard "Zang", I knew what was happening, and I was just hoping it would be true, but it was. My father had finally snapped, and who knew what he was doing."

"_Xin, listen to me, you got to get out of her, now!" Meili ordered Xin, but Xin refused._

"_No, I'm not leaving you here, plus I have to find my family."_

_Meili started breathing hard, the smoke was getting thicker, and the fire was getting hotter, she had to find her mother, and stop her father, and she didn't want anyone getting hurt._

"_Xin, please, I don't want you getting hurt, it's way too dangerous, get out, I'll be fine," Meili started to plead with him._

_Xin saw the plead in her eyes, and a worried expression crossed his face, "Meili, please be safe, I don't want to lose you," he said with tears in his eyes._

"_Don't worry, I'll be safe, just get out of here, the last thing I want is someone dying from this," she said to him. With that, Xin quickly ran for the forest again, he stopped to look at Meili one last time, before running off into the forest._

_Meili quickly looked around, all of this was happening so fast that she didn't know what to do, but she quickly headed in the direction of her house, outmaneuvering the flames as some of them jumped out in front of her._

_When she got to her house, it was engulfed in flames, but she heard no one screaming for help from inside. Meili started to fear the worse._

"_Meili!" she heard her mother scream, Meili quickly turned around to see her mother running towards her._

"_Mom, what's happening? What's he doing?" Meili asked her mother, nearly crying._

"_Listen Meili, it's dangerous here, you have to get out," her mother pleaded with her._

"_What? Me? What about you."_

_Her mother shook her head, "I'm going to have to hold him off, it's you he wants."_

_Meili just stood there in confusion, "What, me why? What does he want with me?"_

_Just before her mother could answer, a black figure came out amongst the burning inferno, and jumped right on her mother, knocking her to the ground. Meili jumped back as she saw her father attack her mother._

_Meili gasped at the sight, this wasn't her father, she saw the evil in his eyes, she had no idea why this was happening, but now wasn't the time to think, her mother was being attacked, and her father was possessed, she had to do something, and although it would hurt, she had to attack her own father._

_Before she could even approach him, a wall of fire suddenly appeared, as if something didn't want Meili to get to her parents. Meili saw beyond the flames, her parents fighting. Zang had her mother pinned to the ground, but her mother fought back fiercely kicking Zang off her, and getting back up. Her mother quickly head butted Zang, causing him to fall back, but that didn't stop him, he quickly got back up, and came right for her mother. As he ran back, he unleashed his claws, and clawed her face, leaving a long scratch mark across her face. He than pinned her to the ground again._

"_You will not come in the way of my destiny!" he yelled out as he soon delivered at mortal wound to her._

_Meili could only watch in horror as Zang took her mother's life. But Meili didn't feel sadness when it happened, she could only feel anger. Pure anger. As soon as Zang finished her off, he than set his sights on Meili. _

_Meili saw him coming towards her, but she didn't run, she waited until he got close enough, when he did, she jumped as high as she could, and unleashed her claws, though they weren't sharp, she came down with a fierce attack across his back. Once Meili landed, she backed away a bit, afraid of what was to happen next._

_As Zang got up, he chuckled to himself, "Oh Meili, you really think you can defeat me?"_

_Meili began to feel her rage build, "Why are you doing this father? Can't you see what you doing?" she yelled out._

_He could only chuckle to himself again, "I do know what I'm doing Meili, and it's all apart of my destiny."_

_Meili began to become confused again, "Destiny, what does having to burn does our village, and killing my mother have anything to do with your destiny?" _

_He smiled, "Don't you understand Meili? All those months, and you never fitted it together, I've been telling you the things I've seen, things about you that need to be, the voices told me it had to be, in order for your destiny to come, I have to do this." With that last statement, he lunged at Meili, but she quickly dodged it, but he kept coming after her with vicious attacks, some of which Meili took, hard. One attack came at her so fast that she didn't have time to dodge, and he clawed her fact just like he did to her mother, leaving a long claw mark on her neck._

_Meili felt the burning sting on her neck, but ignored it, as he was coming back at her, she dodged again, but this time, she came back at him as fast as she could, and clawed him just like he did to her. _

"_That's it, give me all you got," he told her. Meili didn't know whether to take it as a threat, or a request, but she still came at him, clawing him, and trying her best to manage to get away at the same time._

_One of his attacks lead her strait to another wall of fire, one that she couldn't get past, looking around, and seeing no way out, Meili thought of this as the end. _

_Zang approached her, "Well, well, I see your fighting good already, that's great you'll need that, now I'm afraid, here is where one thing ends, and another begins," he came at Meili fast, but Meili, knowing a bit of how to fight, took her stance, and waited for him to get close enough._

_Meili closed her eyes, "I'm sorry," she said softly as he got closed, than when he got close enough, Meili opened her eyes, and attacked._

_She used her hind legs to kick him down, than clawed him up as much as she could before he smacked her off him. Meili landed hard on her back, but still wouldn't give up. He came at her again, but this time, things would end differently. Meili grabbed him by the front leg, and it kind of felt like she broke it as she swung him around, and into the flames. It only took Meili a few seconds to see what she had done._

"I had no idea what I was doing, it felt like something was controlling me while I was fighting, something that was telling me to end him, even though I didn't want to, it was only until after I finished him off to realize what I had done."

_Meili watched her father burn within the flames, "You road has now begun," was her father's last words._

_Meili soon realized that she was still within the inferno, and had to get out quickly. She managed to dodge the flames, but was inhaling too much smoke, and was close to fainting. _

_Meili managed to escape the burning village, and got as far as where she was when she saw the smoke for the first time, before passing out. Before she did she heard the sound of thunder off in the distance._

The sound of crickets was heard throughout the panda village. "I don't remember much of what happened after that, though I could only guessed it rained, when I woke up the next morning, the smell of smoke was still in the air, but it wasn't as strong as it once was. I went back to the village only to find it in complete ruin. I was too overcome with sadness to stay, so I quickly left. I tried looking for Xin, or anyone, but I never did find them. Soon after I began to feel overcome with guilt, sadness, and anger, so much anger. I decided to live alone since than, perhaps it would help me overcome the ordeal. I tried finding peace, but to no anvil. I trained everyday, thinking it would help me as well, again, it didn't. Many years passed, and I thought I would never recover from what had happened, but in all honesty, that all changed when I met you."

Shen suddenly flinched a bit, how could everything change for her by meeting him? "What do you mean?" he said to her.

Meili shrugged, "I don't know, it's just when I met you, I guess it just changed me, you were the first that I came into contact with after the ordeal."

"Wait, so what your saying is that for six years, you never came into contact with anyone?" Shen thought that she was crazy, how could you go six years without anyone?

Meili nodded, "Yes, I was afraid that, like my father, I would go into a quick free-fall to insanity, so I avoided everyone because of it."

Shen started to fit all the pieces together, except for one, "What about those paintings everywhere in you house?"

"I painted them all myself, most of it was to remind me of a better time, a time before all this."

The two than stood in silence for sometime, Shen saw that the Soothsayer had already gone to bed, or somewhere, she would always appear, than disappear in in places. Shen kept thinking of Meili's story over, and over again. It reminded him of how he destroyed the Panda village, and how Meili was trying all these years to find peace, but she couldn't. Than Shen remembered something, something Oogway said to him, _"How she can help you, and how you can help her," _and, "_How you both can help each other, and find peace_. The more Shen thought about it, the more he couldn't believe it, Meili's key to peace was him, and Shen's key to peace was her. It was almost kind of weird when Shen thought about it.

After a while, the fire slowly went out, and Meili began to fall asleep, before she did, Shen spoke up to her.

"You know Meili, your story did start out with a happy beginning, but the events in your story lead to a sad middle, and you became scarred for what happened, but that doesn't mean you have to spend the rest of the story scarred, it's what you do in the rest of your story," Shen stopped for a second, coming to realization of what he was saying, "who you choose to be," those last few word hit Shen hard.

Meili looked up to him, "I know, I'm just glad that now, my story is beginning to turn around."

Shen stood there, and looked up into the stars, and for once in his life, for once, he began to see clearly, and began thinking to himself the big question, the one his inner self has been asking for many, many years. "Is this what you really want?"

**A/N: Whoa, I even surprise myself with my Ocs. But yea, that's how the whole story played out. It appears that Meili's destiny is to help Shen, perhaps? Give me your opinions, I'd love to hear them :D. **

**Is Shen having a change of heart? You'll just have to wait and see!**


	7. Realization

The moon was high up in the sky, and shone full, and bright, lighting up the whole area. It's reflection was brightly shining in the river, and there was not a cloud in the sky, much apart from earlier. It brought a nice, claming aura.

Shen didn't know the last time he felt like this, or if he ever felt like this. He kept replaying Meili's story over, and over in his head, and he had to admit, he felt sorry for her, but the thing that really struck him was one part in the story, about her destiny. The way he thought about it, it was like Meili's father had did what he had done so that Meili and Shens' paths could cross. To think that Meili would live alone for years, only to meet him, so she could help him? The more Shen thought about, another thing began to cross his mind, it was like a little voice in the back of his head, "Think about it, is China what you really want? You had it all once, loving parents, a caring Nana, and all of Gongmen City to rule one day, until that day when you overheard that fortune, and automatically sealed your fate forever."

Shen quickly shook his head, trying to ignore it, but still couldn't shake the feeling of it being right, and that panda being right, the only thing that matters is who you choose to be now, the pages of your book still unwritten.

At some point, Shen started to drift off, he hadn't known how much time had past, or how long he was up, be he felt real tired, and a weirdly, a bit different after Meili's story, plus Meili had been asleep for who knows how long. Shen decided it wouldn't hurt to sleep for a few, it wasn't like they were going anywhere…right?

_It was dark again, like it was before, only this time, he could actually see where he was, though it was dim, he was in the Fireworks Factory. He could also hear the sound of that heartbeat again, as slow as it was before. There was smoke everywhere, like there had always been, but it was heavier, and he couldn't see much, except for one thing, Meili. She rushed over him, and she had tears in her eyes. He himself, felt like he was being crushed, and couldn't breath much. He looked up at Meili, and could see that she was not wearing her Yin-Yang necklace, and could see very clearly a long scratch mark running up the side of her neck._

"_Shen, no," she whispered quietly, trying to fight back the tears that were coming out of her eyes._

_Like before, he couldn't hear what he was saying, it was just faint mumbling to him. But after, Meili just couldn't hold back the tears any longer, "Shen, please no, hang on, please!" It was really sounding like a cry for help._

_Again, the vixen started to disappear from view, as well as everything else. Once the final thing he heard was the heartbeat stopping._

When Shen woke up, he found himself in a very familiar place, much to his own surprise. He was once again back in _Jingshen zhi lu_, and he saw Master Oogway, standing before him.

Shen didn't know why he was back in that place, but he expected a reason, "And what do I owe the honor of being back here again?" He said quite sarcastically.

Oogway just smiled his sweet smile, "Ah, you have finally found out her past, have you not?"

Shen looked at him, puzzled at first, but knew exactly what he who he was talking about "Yes, I have, why does it matter?" Shen didn't care why it matter, but he was here for a reason, wasn't he?

"The actions of you both, has lead you to one another, correct." Oogway wasn't asking.

Shen was, as he always was when he was listening to the old tortoise, confused, until he remembered that it was his past actions that lead up until now, all that he did, has lead him to her. But Shen still couldn't understand.

"Yes, I guess you could say that, but why did all this even happen, why on Earth was I lead to her?" Shen asked.

The old tortoise was still smiling, and walked a bit closer to Shen, "Do you not see Shen? Fates' hands have led you to her for reason."

Shen's eyebrows rose, "Oh yeah? And what reason would that be?" This caught Shen's interest, he didn't ask to survive that fight, though it was nice that he did, but to know that fate played a part in it was, very interesting.

"You see Shen, you were never meant to die, you were always meant to rule Gongmen City, but in order to get on that path you had to find peace within yourself, and in order for that to happen, you had to have help."

Shen's eyes widened when he said it, but widened even more when he understood what he meant, "So, and let me get this strait, I was always meant to rule Gongmen City, but I needed help to do so?

Oogway nodded, "You see, each of your destinies were meant to intertwine at a point, when Meili was born, her parents had a vision that they never shared with her, they saw an image of a fox helping an injured peacock," before Oogway could continue, Shen cut him off.

"So your saying everything I've done in my life, killing all the pandas, making my weapons, and starting an invasion of China, and coming so close to death, was all so I could just meet up with her?" Shen's voice was loud, but it wasn't like anyone could hear him.

Oogway nodded, "She needs help finding peace herself, and for her to find it, she needed help from someone who has experienced both tragedy, and death."

Shen began to get puzzled, since when did he ever experience tragedy, and death? Than he remembered that day when his parents banished him, that moment, when all his love, and trust for them completely shattered, the only moment where he experienced true sadness inside. Than he flashed forward to that moment, seconds before the cannon fell onto him, and closed his eyes, knowing that this was the end.

Oogway snapped him out of his thoughts, "You can still redeem yourself Shen, your not too far from Gongmen City now, you can go there, and right your wrongs, it's not too late."

Shen only heard part of that sentence, he was too busy still thinking about that vixen, so far, she has done nothing to help him, and vise versa, or was that really the case? Shen had no idea what went on in her head, or what was going on with her. But even if was hidden in the back of his mind, Shen had to admit, she wasn't really that bad.

Shen awoke from his dream, being shaken by a frightened Soothsayer.

"Shen, Shen, wake up," the Soothsayer said frightened.

Shen's ruby eyes opened wide, and turned to the Soothsayer, "What is it you old goat?" He didn't say mean like, but he was still somewhat tired, and being awoken from that dream was no better.

"They took her," she told him.

Shen's eyes widened, and his heart quickened, "What? Who? Who took her?" Shen didn't need to know who "her" was.

"Lang, and his pack, I saw them capture her, she was sleeping, and didn't see it coming, before they could run off, they told me to tell you that if you want her, to come and get her," there was strong sadness in her voice, "I don't know where they could possibly take her."

Shen looked off into the distance, if it was still standing, he bet he could see his old home from here, "I may have an idea."

He didn't know why, but he started to run as fast as he could through the forest.

**A/N: Hey everyone, it's been awhile hasn't it? Mehh, short chapter is short, but I've been on an emotional rollercoaster all week, so I'm sorry if I'm leaving you guys with a big cliffhanger, and it's even worse that it's going to be on hiatus too D:. Sorry, but there is a few things I need to take care of in my home life now, but I promise you guys one thing, it won't be for long!**

**God, don't you just love foreshadowing? It's my favorite story element :D. R&R please ****J.**


	8. Trapped

Meili opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Lang. He was staring at her, smiling. Once she saw his face, she started to lunge at him, only to see she was being held back. She looked to see herself chained, and surrounded by wolves.

Lang chuckled, "Heheh, I'm afraid that will do you no good vixen, we made sure you would be chained up nice and tightly, so that you wouldn't run off."

Meili shot a death glare at Lang, she moved around a bit, but it was obvious that she was chained up tight, and couldn't get out.

Lang chuckled once again, "Go ahead, try all you want, your not getting out."

Meili's anger rose, "What am I doing here? I thought I made myself clear when we last battled that you'd better not show yourself to me ever again," she continued to glare at him, hoping that she was striking some fear into him.

Lang grinned evilly, "Trust me, I've learned well from our last battle, but if you look around vixen, you can see that your very well out-numbered, but don't worry, if you be a good little fox, I can promise you that once this is over, you'll get out alive," Lang said to her as if she was a child.

Meili's anger suddenly wiped away from her face, all that was left, was a look of worriment, "What do you mean by 'when this is all over', why am I really here for?" she yelled out to him, as if giving him an order.

He got closer to her, "For right now, you're bait."

Meili's heart skipped a beat, and she almost stopped breathing for a second, she dared not asked who she was bait for, because she already knew.

"_Shen, if you know what's good for you, please don't save me," _she thought, hoping that in some way, Shen would hear her.

He stood near the entrance of the city. Looking at it, he could see not much has changed, than again, it had only been what, almost a week since the events that took place. Only a week ago, he was about to start an invasion to take over China. Only a week since that panda almost took his life. Only a week, since he first met her. Looking back on all of it, it felt like it all happened just only yesterday. The city looked real different without the Tower of the Scared Flame, but he had other things to worry about than how the city looked.

"_What am I doing?_" Shen though to himself. "_I'm about to probably put my life at risk for this vixen." _Shen sighed, he didn't know why he wanted to save her, after all, what much has she done for him? But he did know one thing, that he wasn't going to let Lang come between him, and his plans.

Speaking of his plans, Shen began to think back to when he was resting in Meili's hut, he was set on continuing to carry out his desire to take over China, but now, it was like that desire was slowly fading away.

Shen looked up to the moon, it was lower in the sky, but still shining bright, "_Have I really changed?_" he asked himself. He didn't know why, but he felt like something in him changed.

He snapped himself out of his thoughts, he had to figure out a way to get into the city without getting caught, if the citizens knew he was alive, they would do whatever it takes to make sure he wouldn't be.

He started to move silently, but suddenly realized that his metal talons made the clanking noise as they hit ground, a recognizable feature that the citizens knew well. He than looked up to where the factory was, if he was quick, he could easily fly to where it was, besides it was still late at night, so everyone would be asleep.

He walked over to bridge near the harbor, and spread out his wings. He didn't need to fly far, he just needed to get closer to the factory. He jumped off the bridge, and starting flying towards the factory. He'd forgotten how hard it was to fly with all his blades in his robe, plus his tail. He wasn't in the air for very long, but he managed to land not too far from where the entrance was.

"This is going to be a long night," Shen said quietly to himself, as he slowly made way for the factory.

Meili didn't know how long she'd been staring at Lang, she didn't take her eyes off him, to make sure he didn't pull any harsh tricks. They'd both been silent for some time.

"You know, what if Shen doesn't come?" Meili asked Lang. She was certain that Shen would come, but she really didn't want him to.

Lang walked up to her, "Oh, he'll come, you two were to reach here eventually."

Meili pulled her eyes away from him, he was right, their main reason for traveling so far was to get to Gongmen city. She than put her eyes back to him

"What do you want Shen for anyway, what has he ever done to you?" She couldn't help but ask.

Lang looked confused for a moment, than smiled, "You really don't know do you?"

Meili started to get confused as well, "What do you mean? What should I be knowing?"

Lang got in real close to her, "Shen doesn't care about you, he doesn't care about anyone, he's just using you to help him take over China."

Meili gasped silently, she knew that Shen wanted to take over China in his past, but she didn't know that he still wanted to, "N-No, that was in the past, he's changed, he doesn't want China anymore," she told him, voice quivering, wishing that statement was true.

Lang laughed, "Really? How are you so sure? The one thing about Shen is that he lies, chances are, once he has China, he won't need you anymore, and will get rid of you, the same way he got rid of me."

By this time, Meili was starting to tear up, she didn't want to believe anything he was saying. If there was one thing she'd learned since meeting Shen, is that he's conflicted, but he isn't a bad guy. She remembered that day it rained, and they were in the cave, Shen put his wing around her, at the moment, she knew that Shen, in some way, did care for her.

"N…N-No, Shen d-does care a-about me…and h-he's not who you th-think anymore, he has changed," Meili was trying really hard to keep the tears from falling, but she couldn't, she knew in her heart that Shen had changed.

"Really? You think so? They why doesn't he come to save you then?" Lang snickered to her.

Before Meili could respond, on of the other wolves came up to Lang. "Boss, come quick! It's an emergency!"

Lang turned to the wolf, "What is it?" he ordered.

"It's Shen, he's here." he told him.

Lang smiled, and turned to Meili once more, "Well," he began, "It looks like your hero, has finally come to save you." He backed away from her, and followed the other wolf to where Shen was, "Watch her," he told the other wolves.

Meili started to feel more tears coming to her eyes, and sighed softly to herself, "Shen," she said quietly, "please, be okay."

**A/N: Hey guys, guess who's back :D? Well, just to let you know, everything's been sorted out now at home, and I can finally return to writing, and drawing, and stuff like that :D.**

**Well now, what have we here, Meili's chained up by Lang, and Lang has a plan to kill Shen, and Shen has to save Meili. Wow, so many stuff going on here huh? Sorry for another cliffhanger *SHOT*. All I got to say at this point is, in the next chapter, there will be a fight, and a character death, I'm not going to say for who though ;). **

**Also, we are nearing the final chapters of Just Like You D:. I'd say there's about 3 more chapters left ****L. Oh man, I'm gonna be crying buckets when this ends. **


	9. Freedom at Last?

Shen stood, blades ready. There were at least five wolves surrounding him, he could easily take them all out, but strangely, they didn't start attacking, or even tried to fight him off, they just stood there, but Shen knew as soon as he would start to make a move, they would come at him.

"Well, well, look who's finally come," a voice spoke up. Shen looked from the corner of his eye, to see Lang coming from the shadows.

Shen turned his head to him, folding his wings into his sleeves. His anger slowly rose, "You expected someone else?" he sarcastically asked.

Lang snickered, "No, not really." He had his hammer ready.

Shen angrily glared at him, "You know, we could do this the easy way, where you give me the girl, and we don't fight," Shen honestly did not want to fight, because he still felt a bit weak.

Lang started beating his hammer against his hand, "Or we can do this my way where I don't give you the girl, and I make sure you never see the light of another day."

Shen soon got his blades ready again, and smiled, inside, he got a weird feeling, fighting off his once best friend would be hard for him, but if this is what he had to do, than so be it, "Very well then, but I can make sure that this is one fight you will not win."

Lang snapped his fingers, and as if on cue, the rest of the wolves moved in closer to him, growling, and getting ready for battle, "We'll just see about that."

Somewhere, in the moment of time from Lang's last words to when the wolves started to attack, Shen thought of everything that has happened, him first meeting the fox, meeting Oogway, learning of his true destiny, hearing her story, and now. Not much of a journey. Shen than thought of what was going on now, will he be able to survive this fight? Well, maybe, after all, it was only Lang, and a few wolves, piece of cake.

The first wolf to attack came from Shen's right, thanks to his peripheral vision, he saw it coming, and quickly launched on of his blades into his chest, knocking him back, but soon the other wolves were coming quickly at him. He quickly fanned up his tail, thanks to his tail feather design, it distracted them long enough for him to whip around, and launch several more blades. They all successfully hit, but than Lang's hammer whacked Shen on his left side, and he hit the ground, hard. Shen didn't even have time to examine his wound before Lang came at him again. He quickly got up, and dodged his attack, and went to get his blades. He grabbed the ones that he threw at the wolves, than quickly spun around to throw those at Lang.

Lang used his hammer to block the incoming blades, but one of them managed to hit him right in the center of his leg, right where the kneecap would be.

"AUOHHH," Lang cried out in pain. Shen saw this as the perfect opportunity to go find the vixen. He ran towards Lang, and jumped up onto his head to fly up to a nearby platform. He landed, but as soon as he did, his left wing started to burst with pain. He looked to see that Lang's hammer did a number on his wing (yet how he was able to fly up here was a mystery). It wasn't bleeding, but it looked like it did brake some bones. The area around where his hammer had hit started to turn blue. Shen held his other wing to it, hoping to ease the pain, but it only made it worse. He saw two more wolves coming at him, with his injured wing, it was now going to be harder for him to fight.

He got out his lance, and used it to puncture one of the wolves in the chest. The armor on him was strong, but thankfully for Shen, his lance's metal was stronger. He than swung his lance, with the wolf having the lance in his chest, knocking over the other wolf off the platform. Shen quickly removed the lance, only to see it the tip of it in blood.

"Well, at least it got through," She said, looking at the tip of his lance. He quickly looked down to see the other wolves gathering around where the two wolves fell, than taking their sights to Shen.

He quickly backed away, than jumped up to the higher levels. The wolves started to come back after him. Shen looked back down to see them climbing up, he threw some blades down to stop them, only few were successful, but that still didn't stop the few wolves that were hit. Shen continued to out-maneuver them, of course with his injured wing, he couldn't for long. But soon he saw something white near the top, probably where he fired his weapon at the panda, he didn't have to guess to know who that was. Using whatever energy he had left from the fighting he did, he quickly made way to where she was.

Meili kept herself turned from the battle going on down below, the last big fight she saw didn't turn out good in the end. But it wasn't only that, she just couldn't find it to even move, or even look away from the wooded floorboards she was staring out into space at.

"_This is all my fault," _she thought to herself, "_if I hadn't helped Shen out, he wouldn't be in this mess, than again, he would also be dead."_

She was than pulled from her thoughts when she heard something land up beside her. She didn't bother turning her head, just thinking it was another wolf coming up to guard her, but that thought went away as soon as she heard the sound of the wolves fighting off whatever had just appeared. Meili turned her head ever so slightly, only to catch a glimpse of beautiful white feathers dancing around. It was only than did she turn her head fully around to see Shen slashing one of the wolves' leg, and throwing him off the edge. She than smiled.

"You came," she said, almost softly. It felt like a total cliché to Meili, but honestly, what else could she say?

Shen smirked, "That was a total cliché you know, but yes, I did."

Meili moved about in her chains, and looked back to Shen, "Do you think you can get me out of here? Getting out of chains isn't really my forte."

Shen nodded, "Of course, but it's not going to be easy, and I don't know how long it will take me."

Meili than heard the sound of the wolves coming, she didn't care how long it would take Shen to bust her out of these chains, but to do it before they came to end the both of them.

"Well, still, I think you'd better hurry it up either way, or soon we're both going to be goners."

Shen eyed up to Meili, "Note taken."

Shen began to use his lance to try to cut through the chains, it was working, but not very effectively, if he kept going like this, they would both be dead before long.

Meili gasped, and Shen saw out from the corner of his eye, two wolves making their way towards him. Shen looked at the chains that were holding Meili, and than, a sudden idea came to mind.

Shen stared up to Meili, "Ready for plan B?" He asked her.

Meili stared at him, "What's plan B?" she questioned him. Shen looked back at the wolves, than back to her.

"Just keep still, don't move, and I promise, if you do just that, you may actually get through this alive."

Meili's eyes widened, "What?" she screamed, but Shen had already sprung into action.

He quickly fanned up his tail feathers, and swept them around to stop the wolves in their tracks. He threw his lance at one of them, cutting its arm. With his tail feathers still up, he swept them around, knocking the wolf off, and down below. He quickly turned back around to see the other wolf guarding over Meili, as if that would stop Shen from setting her free. He twirled his lance around the wolf, thinking that it would intimidate him to run, which it did, weirdly enough. With him out of the way, Shen twirled his lance again, and launched it at the chains. Thanks to the force of how it was thrown, it was enough to cut the main chain holding Meili down.

With the chains destroyed, Meili quickly got up, and looked to Shen with surprise, "That was the craziest think I've ever seen."

Shen scoffed, "Well, I wouldn't say that, we are not out of the fire yet, we still have to escape this place, and trust me, getting here for me was hard enough."

As if on cue, Lang jumped up right beside them both. Meili gasped, but quickly took her stance. Shen, however, put his wing in front of her, which really surprised her, Meili started to wonder if Shen was trying to protect her in some way, shape, or form. Shen got out one of his feather blades, and prepared himself for whatever was coming his way.

Lang snickered, and laughed evilly, "You are so sure that you're going to make it out of this alive, aren't you? You've died once Shen, don't think that just because you've got that fox here mean that you will escape it a second time."

Shen narrowed his eyes at him, "The same goes for you Lang, only this time, I'll make sure you stay dead."

Lang laughed again, this time more loudly. Shen exchanged glances with Meili, who had the same look on her face. They both started to wonder if Lang had lost his mind. But amongst the laughter, Lang suddenly said two words, that sent a chill up both of Shen, and Meili's spine.

"Take aim," Lang suddenly said sinisterly.

Both Shen, and Meili looked around, and much to their surprise, four cannons, started to surround them. Shen was in utter disbelief.

"I-Impossible," He said quietly.

"Shen, what are those?" Meili said, her voice starting to fill with horror.

Shen closed his eyes, and for a moment, memories started flooding back to him. Memories of him watching the wolves make the weapons for him, and firing several of them to destroy his home, and his most powerful cannon falling down on top of him, nearly killing him.

Shen dropped his blade to the ground. Meili gasped in surprise. "Shen!" she exclaimed.

Lang laughed, "HA! Where's your bravado now Shen? Finally given up? Now that you see that this is obliviously the final end for you. The final end of you both!"

Shen looked back up at Lang, "Yes, you are right, I am giving up." He said almost inaudible.

"No! Shen! You can't give up, not now!" Meili exclaimed, she couldn't believe that Shen was giving up so easily. Sure they had those weapons, but they could still win this fight. Shen looked like he'd given up, but Meili certainly wasn't giving up now.

Suddenly Shen flashed Meili a look, a look that only said "trust me." Meili slightly gasped at this, but she did trust Shen, and she would do whatever it took, to win this fight.

"HA! All right boys, let's finish this." Lang announced. All the cannons started to take their final aim. Meili kept looking at Shen, waiting for him to do something, before the weapons finally fired at them.

Than, before anything else could be done, Shen grabbed onto Meili's paw, and the two of them jumped off the platform, and ran to the exit.

"GET THEM!" Lang suddenly shouted.

The wolves started running after the two. Amongst the chaos perusing, Shen and Meili hid behind some barrels.

"Shen, what the heck are those things?" Meili whispered quietly.

Shen did not know how to put it, he wasn't skilled in comforting, but was trying to do the best he could, "Those, are the weapons I invented, and chances are, they are probably going to use them to kill us."

Meili breathed in deeply, "Well, yeah, I can see that, but how are we going the destroy them?"

Shen gulped, "That's the thing, they cannot."

A puzzled expression crossed Meili's face, "If they cannot be destroyed, than how are we going to survive?"

"I only said **we** cannot destroy them."

Meili's face began to lighten up, "So…you're saying?"

Shen nodded, "They can only destroy themselves."

Meili looked behind her, and caught a glimpse of the weapons. "So the plan is, to try and the weapons to destroy themselves, all with trying the evade the wolves, and certain death?"

Shen nodded, "Easy right?"

Meili sighed, "Let's find out."


	10. Thank You

**A/N: Oh My God, has it really been since December since I last updated? All I have to say now is that SCHOOL IS OVER! Thank the lord. This school year has been hectic, and I could not be more happy that it's over. Now that it is, I can finally finish this story that I've been wanting to finish all year. **

**I just want to say thank you for all those who are still reading this, even though I've been long with updates. Thank you for being patient and whatnot, you guys truly are amazing.**

Both Meili, and Shen began to run back up the tope of the factory, where they weapons were. However, Lang, and his wolves caught onto them fist, and the two of them quickly found themselves surrounded once more.

"Heh, you guys just don't give up do ya?" One of the wolves jokingly said.

Meili growled, and showed her teeth, "Nope, and we're not planning to any time soon."

Meili swiftly flipped overtop of Shen, and landed right in front of the wolf, and kicked him right in the lower jaw, which was powerful enough to knock him out in the process. Once Meili knocked one of the wolves out, all the others started to swarm them. Shen than sprung into action, flaring up his tail feathers, and swirled them around, creating a wind that blew them all back, and Meili took care of the rest of them by knocking them out at their pressure point. Once all the wolves were taken care of, they continued heading towards the weapons, but a sudden blast occurred.

"Shen!" Meili cried out. Shen turned around to only see a fire ball whiz past in between him and Meili. The ball than landed down below causing an explosion.

"They started firing! Quickly, we have to get to the top fast, before we get blasted to bits," She shouted. Meili quickly ran up past Shen, and started doing acrobatic moves while evading the incoming weapon shots.

Shen however, was fining it hard to keep up. He did possess the same skills that Meili had, but he was still suffering from his injuries from earlier. "Come on Shen, keep this up, and you'll be killed," he told himself. He spotted on of the weapons not to far above him, and quickly started moving his way up, despite his injuries. With one jump, and handed right on top of the weapon, and launched his feather blade at the wolf firing it. He turned around to see that Meili had made it to the weapon on the other side.

"Vixen! Light the weapon, and aim it over here!" Shen commanded, and Meili did exactly what he said. She grabbed a hold of the flame stick, and lit the weapon. Shen quickly used his metal talons to light his weapon, and quickly got off of it, as both the weapons shot, and destroyed each other.

Shen turned around to see the weapon firmly destroyed, but two still remained, and Lang was controlling one of them. He quickly looked across to where the other weapon was, and shouted to Meili, "Get rid of the other weapon! I'll take card of Lang."

On the other side, Meili heard Shen's command loud and clear, and quietly whispered under her breath, "Be careful, and good luck." She looked up and saw the weapon, about to fire, at Shen. Meili quickly raced towards it, but not before two wolves came charging at her.

"Seriously guys? I don't have time for this," she said rather annoyed. She went right to the wolves and hit them all around their bodies, rendering them paralyzed, "Just be lucky I'm in a hurry."

Meili looked back up at the weapon, the wolf up there had the flame stick in his grasp, about to light the weapon. She turned around, and saw Shen, who was just making his way up to Lang, but as Meili looked between Shen, and the weapon, she realized she wouldn't make it in time to it, and neither would Shen. So, she made a stupid idiotic decision.

Shen, on the other hand, was doing fine, he was closing the distance between him, and Lang, but just as he was about to make it, he heard a sudden BANG from behind him. He turned around to see the flame ball coming right for him. Silently, he took a stance.

"Okay, you can do thing, remember what the panda did," Shen told himself. He moved his feet around the way the panda did, and prepared for the oncoming shot. He put all his focus into it.

Suddenly before the shot even hit him, something pushed him out of the way. Shen saw that it was Meili.

"What are you doing vixen?" Shen said angrily, Meili only had worried expression on her face.

"Saving you from trying to kill yourself!" she said back at him.

"I'm not trying to kill myself!" He yelled back at her.

"Than way on Earth were you standing in front of that thing?" she asked him.

Shen was about to speak, when Lang spoke up before him, "Wow Shen, you're either really stupid, or you like giving up easily."

The wolf from the other side fired another shot at him, Meili quickly pushed him out of the way again. They both landed on each other, as the fireball hit the bottom of where they were once standing.

Shen angrily pushed Meili away from him, "Will you stop that vixen!" he yelled at her.

Meili threw her paws up in disgust, "Stop what? Trying to save your life?

"No! From trying to stop me from saving YOUR life!"

Meili's anger expression fell, and a confused look took it's place, "Wha…What do you mean?"

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Lang barked, "It's time to end this." Lang lit the rope on the weapon, which instantly fired, right at Shen and Meili.

"Move Meili!" Shen called out as he swiftly pushed Meili away from the weapon's fire.

She landed away from Shen, but saw the fireball whizzing right towards him, "Shen!" Meili cried out.

Shen made one final glance to Meili. He saw the fireball coming right at him, and saw it was too late to even try to make any attempts to evade it, also he couldn't try the panda's moves either. For the first time in a very long time, Shen felt his eyes water. He knew that this was the absolute end, nothing would save him this time, no panda, no wolves, and not even Meili. He closed his eyes for the last time, finally accepting his well deserved fate.

"NO! Not like this!" Meili yelled. Shen opened his eyes, and saw Meili running up to him, but she didn't push him away, instead, she did the second craziest thing Shen has ever seen. Shen ran up, and "grabbed" the fireball, and swung it around and threw it back over. The fireball went back with such a force, that it blew up the entire structure the weapon was on.

Shen stared at Meili with astonishment, Meili just looked at him, and chuckled, "Glad to see I can surprise you, now come on, Lang still has the last weapon."

Shen nodded, and the pair than started making way to Lang, even though they both had sufficient injuries, it would take a lot more to stop them.

"I'll go on ahead, I would like to have a few words with Lang," Shen called out to Meili, who nodded in response.

Shen ran out father ahead, and flew above, and tackled Lang before he could make a move. Shen used his talons to pin Lang to the ground, he hear other wolves starting to come to save their leader, but lucky for him the vixen had his back. Shen kept his focus all on Lang, the wolf made no attempt to fight back, he only chuckled.

Shen narrowed his eyes, "What are you laughing about?" He said through gritted beak.

Lang continued chuckling, "I'm just surprised that all it took was a fox to change you."

Shen's anger rose at the remark, and started slowly choking him, "If you think that, that vixen has changed me, you're mistaken."

Lang continued laughing, "Are you sure Shen? Cause if she didn't, you'd be killing her along with us, what was that you said on the boat?" H paused as if for dramatic effect, "Oh yea 'Nothing stands in my way!'"

Shen's anger snapped, he released Lang, but turned the weapon around facing at him, and jumped on top of it, ready to fire. Lang looked at Shen, whose face was teaming with rage, "DO IT!" He yelled loud enough, all the action going on around them stopped, and all eyes were focused on them. Lang continued to speak, "If you haven't changed, than do it."

Shen was ready, he wanted to do it, he wanted to end him, he wanted to blow him to pieces, he wanted to show to him that he hasn't changed, and never will. He had his metal talons, slowly starting to scrape across the rope, but Shen knew in order to light it, he had to swiftly move it across. But he felt his talons shaking, "_What?"_ he thought to himself, _"What am I doing? No, am I, hesitating?"_ Shen tried his best to fight this self-resistance. He felt his leg shaking, and that was all it took for him to realize that he really couldn't do it. As much as he wanted to, he could not.

"No, it won't end like this, not for you at least," Shen said under his breath. All he heard was Lang chuckling softly, Shen's eyes shot up, and lunged towards Lang, throwing multiple knives in his chest, causing the wolf to scream out in pain. Shen grabbed onto one of the knives in his chest, and twisted it around, hopefully it was in the right place. Lang collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood. Shen was breathing heavily, but was keeping his eyes on Lang, making sure he finally got the job done, when the wolf finally stopped breathing, he turned around, only to see one of his wolves light the weapon.

It only took Shen seconds to realize how close he was to it, but luckily he also had enough time, to try it at least one more time. As he lit the weapon, Shen heard Meili scream out for him one last time. He cleared his head, moved with the motions, tried to feel as calm as possible, and waited. The ball came out fast, but Shen felt as he grabbed it in his feathers. It was burning hot, but Shen tried his best to ignore the pain, and with all he could, he threw it back at the weapon, which exploded on impact, but after, everything went black.

"…en!…" his ears were ringing, and he felt a force crushing him, "…shen!…" he heard his name being called out, a familiar voice, was it her? "Shen!" it was. Meili.

He opened his eyes, everything was fuzzy, but he made out a white silhouette standing over him, he smiled, "Vixen. Glad to see you're doing alright," his voice was quite, he looked over to see that he was underneath tons of rubble. He could hear his heartbeat in his ear, getting a bit slower.

"That was crazy, but please, tell me you're alright," Shen could already he Meili's voice starting to crack. He didn't know, was he dying? He didn't feel any pain, only the feeling of being crushed.

"I don't know, vixen, I…don't know," he was finding it harder to breath, he looked up into Meili's eyes, tears were forming, "I'm so sorry."

Meili shook her head, "Don't be, you haven't done anything to me, just please hang in there."

Shen looked down, and shook his head, "I have, I had plans to use you, for my own personal gain, and I'm sorry for that."

Meili kneeled down, and tried to pull Shen from the rubble, which only made him cringe in pain. The made Meili realize that she couldn't get him out, which made her also want to keep trying to get him out.

"No, Meili, stop, it's alright, it's meant to end like this," he said quietly, but Meili refused what he said.

"No, it doesn't. Shen, it's alright, I forgive you, just do me one last favor and don't die," tears started running down Meili's face. Even though a side of her was angry at Shen for trying to use her, another part of her knew that he was truly sorry, even though he intentionally meant it.

Shen smiled slightly, "All I have is one last thing to say," Shen paused as he tried to get enough air into his lungs to get the full words out, "Thank you, Meili, I guess, in a way you helped me, which is what I needed for a long time now. And I guess," Shen couldn't believe the next words that came out of his beak, "You've been a great friend."

Meili couldn't finds the words to speak, Shen couldn't be saying good-bye to her, not like this, she wiped off some tears off her face, "And so have you."

She could feel his vision getting darker, Meili was starting to fade from sight, with one last look in her fiery red eyes, Shen smiled, and for the first time in his life, he felt like he was at peace. "Thank you, Meili." were his last words he spoke to her, before everything went black.

Shen opened his eyes, to find himself in a well-familiar place. Shen didn't have to guess where he was. He turned to his right to see a familiar face gleaming at him. Shen smiled at him, "Let me guess, you're here to personally escort me to the afterlife?"

Oogway chuckled, "No, I had something better in mind."

**A/N: Like I said, I hope to be quicker on updates from here on out. Is Shen dead for good? Or does Oogway have plans for him? Stay tuned ****J.**


	11. New Sunrise

**A/N:** **Alright guys, we're nearing the end. And after a year of working on this story, it's finally coming to a close. Please note, this isn't the last chapter, I still have an epilogue in the works. But I would love to thank everyone who has reviewed/favorite this story! This was the first real story I ever started, and I'm sorry for all the hiatuses, but it's always worth the wait in the end! Thank you all, and enjoy!**

"Are you serious?" Lord Shen scoffed.

"Yes, I am, you have definitely proven yourself over these past few days, and I'm sure you can redeem yourself even more. That is why you'll continue to live," Oogway said to him.

Shen's mind raced over all the events that had taken place. How could've a mere seven days change him as much as it did, even though Shen himself didn't think he changed at all, but of course he had softened at heart. Shen looked over to Oogway, whose face was always brimming with that smile. "So, that's that. I've finally changed, hm? Given up my ways of wanting to rule China? Even after all I've done, you still want me to live."

Oogway nodded his head, "It's not the fact that I want you to live, it's the fact that you need to live. Believe it or not, but the city needs you. I've been foreseeing events going to happen in Gongmen City for some time now, and in those times the citizens will need someone to look to, someone that will guide them through those times, and make them see that everything will get better in time."

Shen laughed heartily, "Are you serious? In case you don't know, everyone and their children despise me, they may have had some high respect for my parents, but I know if I show my face to them, after they believed me to be dead, they will most likely have me executed on the spot," Shen looked down, the light green grass waved across his talons. It was true what he spoke, if they would not execute him, they would run him out of town, or better, get that panda back to finish what he started. Whatever they would do, the one thing they would not do is suddenly idealize him as if he was a god.

Oogway turned away from Shen, and closed his eyes to feel the soft breeze. He breathed in deeply, and slowly exhaled, "It is certain that they will not give you their loyalty, and trust at first, but in time they will. In fact, a few of them have even seen the battle between you and Lang, and even them cannot believe it."

That surprised Shen, had a few of them actually saw what took place? "How? It was nearly the middle of the night." Shen's heart started to quicken a bit, if only a few saw what happened, then it would only be a matter of time before word got around. Maybe it would just be better if he stayed dead.

"You best not fear, it is true that a few of the citizens witnessed your fight, but it was not the fact that you were alive that surprised them, though I must admit they were definitely surprised, but it was rather your actions this time around that stunned them."

_My actions? _Shen thought. He did just redirect a fireball to defeat Lang, even though his intentions were probably way different than from what they were probably thinking. He heard Oogway's voice speak up from beside him, "Your actions were just the beginning for them. You've just proved to them that you have changed. They will spread the word. Some will not believe it at first, but in time they will come to."

Shen sighed, he could feel a small smile form on his beak, "You were right, even though I feel that I have not changed, I have. It's all thanks to Meili, I guess she did help me." Shen's mind was than brought to Meili. She was so sad when he saw her last, there was no doubt that she was afraid that he was going to die. She did care about Shen, in the short time that he'd gotten to know her, somewhere along the road, they did begin to trust each other.

"If I am alive, then where am I now? I know my spirit is here, but what about my body?" Shen questioned.

"After you fainted, those few citizens came, and helped Meili pull you from the rubble. What was left of the wolf pack ran off, they probably might not come back. As for your body, it is currently being healed. The Soothsayer, and Meili are awaiting your return." Oogway raised up his staff, "When you are ready, I will send you back."

Shen looked towards the sky. Not only was Meili awaiting him, but the Soothsayer as well. He was finding all of this hard to believe. Not just one week ago he was the most hated being in all of China, and now, now he's really getting a chance to begin again, and rule the way he was suppose to. All of it was real surprising, even though he had to admit his desire to rule China was still there, but it wasn't _there_, it wasn't a goal anymore, it was turning into a faded memory. Meili had changed him, she made his heart soft, not like he was hating it or anything, it was just that he hadn't noticed any changing taking place within him.

Shen looked down at the grass once more, maybe this is what truly needs to happen. He remember one time his mother spoke to him about fate. _They say that fate works in mysterious ways, you never know what the future holds until it happens. But in the end, your fate will always work out for the better. _His mother was right, in the end, things do work out for the better.

Shen looked back to Oogway, and nodded his head. Oogway raised up his staff, and extended it to gently tap Shen's head_. _At the moment it did, everything went black

Shen's eyes opened slowly, his head was pounding, and his vision was fuzzy at first. This whole feeling seemed oddly familiar to him, than he remembered this is how he first felt when he awoke by the river. Shen sat up, and let his eyes get used to the lighting, it didn't take him long to realize that he was inside one of the small temples that were in back of where the Tower of the Sacred Flame once stood. He recognized the dragon painting along the wall. He put his wings to his head, feeling the ringing leave his ears.

"Glad to see you're finally awake, Shen," a voice peeped from beside him. He turned his head slightly to see the Soothsayer handing him a wet cloth, which Shen gradually took. He dabbed the cloth across his head, and felt much more better, and at ease.

"What happened," Shen spoke, of course Shen know knew exactly what happened to him, but not much of what took place after.

"Meili, and two others, brought you back from the factory. They told me what took place there, and about what you did," she paused for a moment as she saw Shen's head turn away from her, as if he didn't want to hear what she would say next, but the Soothsayer continued on anyway, "Shen, I am so proud of you."

Shen swiftly turned his head back to her, "You're what?" He breathed out. She was proud of him? Those were words he thought no one would ever say to him, not even his parents ever did once tell him they were proud. A strange feeling came over him when she said that, it almost felt like he was going to cry.

"I'm proud of you Shen. For the first time in your life, you're starting to find peace within yourself. Also, not to mention, you saved Meili, and stopped what could've been another takeover of the city," the Soothsayer stopped as soon as she saw Shen get up, and walk towards the door.

"Where is Meili?" He asked, not turning his face to the Soothsayer.

The Soothsayer chuckled warmly, "She is outside, up on the roof actually, she has been waiting for you to awake."

Shen hid a soft smile as he continued out the door. It was still dark out, but hints of soft orange light was beginning to color the sky. He looked over to the side of the house where a ladder had been placed, he walked over and climbed up it. As expected, he saw the white vixen staring off into the eastern sky. The sky was a brighter pinkish color off in the horizon, it almost reminded Shen of how the sky looked the day that he and Meili set off for the city. Shen walked up beside Meili, the two stood in silence before Shen spoke up.

"Meili, I-," Shen started off before he stopped himself. Shen wanted to say what he felt, but he was having a hard time trying to put it into words. He silently thought over it for a moment before he opened his beak to speak, but before even uttering a single word, Meili spoke.

"There's no need for words Shen, I know you're thankful, and I am too. Ever since the accident, I've been afraid of myself. I've been afraid that I would go off into a psychotic rage, and do things that I would regret, and hurt others," she shook her head getting rid of the memory, "But thanks to you, I'm not afraid anymore. I knew at first isolating myself wasn't the best idea, but now I'm glad I did it, because it brought me to you. Because of you, I feel more, at peace with myself."

Shen felt a twinge in his heart, and remember what Oogway first said, _"How you both will help each other, and find peace." _He was right. He and Meili both felt more at peace with themselves after the events that had taken place. His mother was right, in the end, everything works out for the better. He smiled as he spoke up again, "But I would still like to thank you properly Meili, after all you've done for me. I'm glad to have met you, and I'm even more glad to call you my friend. Thank you, Meili, for everything."

Shen didn't even know what to expect after what he said, but Meili wrapping her arms around him was least expected. Shen was surprised by this, he hadn't felt one's embrace in so long, but he slowly returned it. They continued embracing until Meili pulled back, "I know it may be hard for you to believe, but I wasn't the only one who save you."

Shen nodded, "I know, two others helped you, citizens of the city no doubt."

Meili looked to Shen surprised, how did he know? She shook away the thought, and continued, "Uh, yes. Anyway, I told them about what you did, and they're probably spreading the word already. It'll be known you're alive in Gongmen City by time the sun is high."

Shen looked out to the rising sun. Soon everyone will know he's alive. How would they react? Would they even believe it? He was a bit frightened of how they will react once they hear the news, but he thought back to what Oogway said, how soon they will need him, even though they may not want to at first.

"I'll be going out into the city later, I'm going to tell them, and confirm it that you are indeed alive," Meili spoke up to him.

Shen closed his eyes, and sighed deeply, "What if no one believes you? What if they think you're crazy?"

"They won't, because you're coming with me," she said with confidence.

Shen gasped quietly, and turned his head to Meili, "What?" Before he could respond, Meili interrupted.

"I know what you're thinking, but please, it's the only way. Look, I promise that if they try anything I will protect you."

Shen looked away from Meili, "Listen Meili, I'm not ready to be seen out there yet, just one week ago these people believed me to be dead, and now they're being told I'm alive. There's already two who know, and are already telling everyone else. There's no doubt they'll tell about you. You will be the one who'll confirm it, but I won't be coming with you."

Meili was about to argue, but she stopped herself. Shen was right, as much as she wanted Shen to show himself to be alive, he can't. If anything, it will take some time, and a whole lot of convincing, before Shen can show himself again. But Meili was confident, all it will take is convincing, and proof, thankfully she had the factory to take care of that.

For now, at least, Meili shook away those thoughts from her head, there was a beautiful new sunrise in front of them. They both glanced over at each other and smiled, it was a new beginning for both of them, and after everything that has taken place, one thing was for certain, they were thankful for meeting each other.

**A/N: And that ends it, well not officially. There's still one more chapter to get up. Thank you too all who read/review! It truly means a lot!**


	12. Author's Note

** A/N: Hey guys! I know it's been a while, and you're probably thinking that this is an update, so sorry to disappoint. This is just a short authors note I'm putting in two of my main stories ****Parallel Dimensions**** and ****Just Like You. ****If you guys did not know already, a few months ago (back in July) my computer crashed, and the motor in the tower overheated. Because of this, I can't go on my computer at home at all without it shutting down after five minutes. Well now I got some good news, and bad news. The bad news is, that it's already September, and I haven't gotten a new tower for my computer, but the good news is that school has started for me already! The reason why that's good news is because I have a computer class first period and my school hasn't blocked FanFiction! So I think you can see where I'm going with this. I will be updating again REAL SOON! Thank you to all who've been patient with me, I know I haven't exactly been speedy when it comes to updates, but you guys are what really keep my motivation going! Thanks to you all!**

** Also, I recommend checking out my profile page. I'm currently updating some really outdated stuff, also I have a bit more information there than in this author's note. Check it out if you have the time!**


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